Among the claims that had raised doubts were that her daughter had been kidnapped by traffickers seeking revenge on her, and that eight girls who had been seized from one of her group’s refuges in Cambodia in 2004 were murdered by the army there.
Colleagues of Somaly Mam told The Cambodia Daily the daughter had run away from home, and the newspaper reported that she herself retracted the story of the eight murdered girls, which she had related in a speech at the United Nations.
Among those who said she was untruthful were several colleagues and her French ex-husband, Pierre Legros, who helped found her original Cambodia-based organization, AFESIP, which is the French acronym for Acting for Women in Distressing Situations. AFESIP, formed in 1996, says on its website that it operates in Cambodia and neighboring Laos to rescue girls and women from forced prostitution, while the Somaly Mam Foundation acts as its fund-raising arm.