Faked Identities of Cambodian Leaders Going Viral
Weeks after the Hun Manet-led government was officially formed, three pictures of foreign citizenship granted to Manet and his two senior officials were circulated on social media with a claim saying these were their foreign citizenship cards. The Facebook post had been widely shared on social media. After running a Google Reverse Image Search, however, we found the claim is false.
SOCIAL MEDIA CLAIM
Three pictures of identity cards coming with photos of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and his senior officials were circulated on social media in late August.
The circulation of these pictures came weeks after a new government led by Hun Manet was officially formed and announced.
The social media captions implied these pictures are identity cards granted by the Cyprus government to Hun Manet and his senior officials Neth Savoeun – former national police chief – and Aun Ponnmoniroth – Minister of Economy and Finance.
These pictures had been widely shared, commented on, and reacted by Khmer-speaking Facebook users.
Below is the capture of the Facebook post showing identity cards photographed with photos of Hun Manet, Neth Savoeun, and Aun Ponnmoniroth.
The same pictures were also uploaded by other social media users. Below is the capture of a Facebook post implying Hun Manet, Neth Savoeun, and Aun Ponnmoniroth obtained foreign citizenship.
Please see the capture of another Facebook post sharing the similar implication related to these three pictures.
FACT CHECK
Fact Crescendo Cambodia began debunking the claim by running a Google Reverse Image Search which led us to find out the facts below.
By running a Google Reverse Image Search, we found the same identity cards in Buy Scannable Fake ID which share many similar points. By screening their cards, many same points were found below:
Both ID cards photographed with images of Neth Savoeun and Aun Ponnmoniroth have the same number of card registrations, expiring date, and birthdate.
Moreover, both cards were edited with different fonts which we can identify by comparing with other cards available on the website.
Below is the comparable images between ID card photographed with Neth Savoeun’s image and another ID card photographed with American movie star Leonardo DiCaprio.
Both ID cards were registered with the same number and the issue date is 1234567890. Please see the comparable cards below.
For a U.S. passport photographed with Hun Manet’s image, we also found it was digitally edited.
The original picture was found in the website of the U.S. Department of Commerce that shows this is the sample of the American passport issued to its citizens.
See the comparable images below between the edited passport and the original one.
Former national police chief Neth Savoeun is now a Deputy Prime Minister in the Hun Manet-led cabinet. Aun Ponnmoniroth is also a Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance.
Both were found to have obtained Cypriot citizenship, according to an investigative report published by Reuters some years ago.
CONCLUSION
Fact Crescendo Cambodia found the claim mentioned above is false. We found these identity cards photographed with images of Cambodian senior leaders were fake.
