The authority barred dozens of journalists and photographers from interviewing former Phnom Penh police chief Heng Pov, who was deported from Malaysia back to Cambodia Thursday.

Heng Pov was first detained in the Phnom Penh Municipal Court and later transferred to the Interior Ministry.

Earlier Thursday morning, the Malaysian Appeals Court overturned the Dec. 15 ruling by the High Court that Heng Pov be deported to Singapore where he had hoped to fly to Finland to seek asylum, on grounds that only the Immigration Department could decide where a foreigner should be deported.

On Dec. 4, the Finnish government issued entry visa for Heng Pov, who was sentenced to 18 years in jail in absentia in September in Phnom Penh for masterminding to kill a judge.

Cambodia immediately urged Finland to reconsider its decision about the one-legged and 49-year-old former police chief, who, also serving as personal advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen and under-secretary of state at the Ministry of Interior, managed to fled to Singapore in July and then to Malaysia.

He has been detained in Malaysia since Oct. 3 for overstaying his entry pass.

The Cambodian court believed that he was responsible for the murder of Phnom Penh judge Sok Sethamony, while a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation insisted that he was involved in six other cases including illegal confinement, murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, and illegal weapon possession and usage.

Source: Xinhua