Heng Pov

Heng Pov (born December 1, 1957, in Kandal Province, Cambodia) was the Undersecretary of State and an assistant to the Minister of the Interior of Cambodia, as well as police commissioner of the city of Phnom Penh, and a personal advisor to Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Heng Pov was born in Kandal province to a family of Chinese-Vietnamese descent. In 1981, Heng Pov married Tung Thi Van, the daughter of Tung Pov, Vietnamese government agent based in Phnom Penh. The following year, Heng Pov joined the police force.

In December 2006, Finland announced that it was willing to grant Heng Pov refugee status; instead, hours before he was supposed leave Malaysia for Finland, Malaysia handed him to Cambodian authorities who took him back to Cambodia in a private plane on 19 December 2006, where he was arrested and sentenced to multiple life sentences. His wife and three of his six children now reside in Finland, where they have been granted status as political refugees.

Khieu Thakvika, spokesman for the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that if Finland "regrets" about Heng Pov, Cambodia can send many criminals to Finland.