Australia cleared over Khmer Rouge kidnap murder
Coroner supports decision not to pay ransom Sydney: Canberra was Wednesday cleared of blame over the kidnap and killing of an Australian backpacker in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge, with a coroner supporting the decision not to pay a ransom. David Wilson, 29, was snatched from a train ambushed by Khmer Rouge militia between Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville on July 26, 1994, along with Briton Mark Slater and Frenchman Jean-Michel Braquet. The trio were held hostage for 100 days as their captors attempted to pressure the Australian, French and British governments into paying a ransom of US$50,000 (Dh183,645) in gold for each man. They were ultimately murdered as Khmer forces retreated from a military offensive on their southern Phnom Vor base, near Kampot, by the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces on or around September 28. Wilson died from a blunt force injury to the head. The other two men were shot. Their bodies were exhumed by Australian police in November 1994. An inquest into Wils