Cambodia arrests Aussie tourists for artifact theft

PHNOM PENH: Two Australian men have been arrested in Siem Reap, the gateway to Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temples, for stealing artifacts from the complex, local police said on Sunday.       

The tourists, whose names have not been released, were arrested Friday at their hotel, where three pieces of stone allegedly stolen from the temples were found, said Tan Chay, Siem Reap provincial police chief for heritage.           

"We arrested them on Friday after hotel workers were suspicious of the stones and reported it to the police," he said.       

The suspects denied the accusation and said they had bought the artifacts from a seller, but Tan Chay said that no vendor would sell those particular pieces of stone.           

"These two picked two pieces from Bayon temple and another from Angkor Wat," he said.         

The two tourists could face up to 10 years imprisonment if found guilty, he said. The case was sent to the provincial court late Friday.         

Angkor Wat is Cambodia's most treasured landmark, and its biggest tourist draw. The country relies heavily on tourist dollars to shore up its flagging economy, which has been left in tatters by decades of war that ended in 1998.       

Many of Cambodia's archaeological sites have been decimated by looting, but Angkor Wat has been reasonably well protected after a crack-down on tomb raiders.