Spanish researcher allegedly deported from Cambodia for 'witchcraft': “We all know you fly around on broomsticks”
Friday, September 2, 2016 @ 12:50 PM
STATE authorities in Cambodia have denied arresting and deporting a Spanish scientist on suspicions of 'witchcraft', despite her saying one of the soldiers involved in her imprisonment claimed that 'everyone knows Spanish people fly around on broomsticks'.
Marga Bujosa was arrested for joining in a protest against the arrest of two of her colleagues who had been previously detained for joining in a similar march, this time in defence of human rights.
Bujosa, who is studying a PhD at Granada University and was in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, on a field trip, said she was 'kicked until she had swellings everywhere' whilst in custody.
She reported this to the Spanish embassy in Thailand, the nearest, since Cambodia does not have one.
The Mallorca-born scientist said she had refused to hand over her mobile phone to police, but they forced it off her anyway and returned it with all the photos of the protest she had taken deleted.
“Everyone knows the Spanish do magic – they can fly on broomsticks,” one of the military officers involved in her arrest allegedly said to her.
He later insisted his comments were 'just a joke'.
According to head of investigation at the Cambodian interior ministry's immigration department, Uk Heisela, “the Spanish woman was very aggressive with us, but we treated her politely and respectfully.”
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com