Two Canadians who faced charges in Cambodia of producing pornographic photos during a party arrived back in Canada Friday night after a court allowed their release.

Eden Kazoleas and Jessica Drolet were among seven foreigners freed after being arrested last month for allegedly posting photos on social media of themselves engaged in sexually suggestive dancing.

The pair arrived Friday evening at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, where they spoke to reporters.

A tearful and shaken Kazoleas called the entire experience “terrifying.”

“I did not know attending that pool party would be offensive to Cambodian culture,” she said.

“The main reason it was so scary is we didn’t speak the native language, so it was confusing,” said Kazoleas.

The two young women had been making their way home since Feb. 5, after their passports were returned to them by Cambodian authorities.

Read more: Two Canadians among 10 arrested in Cambodia on pornography charges

Kazoleas, 19, of Alberta, and 26-year-old Drolet, who is from Ontario, were jailed for more than a week and kept in a cell with more than 45 other women, said their Toronto lawyer, Michael Tibollo.

“It was a very confined space,” he said. “They barely had space to lie around or make a bed to lie on, so the conditions were not the best.”

The pair returned to Canada with Tibollo’s daughter, Frances, who negotiated their release, he said.

He said the women left Cambodia shortly after their release, flying to Thailand and then the Philippines before returning to Canada.

Unable to go into details because the investigation continues, lawyer Frances Tibillo said that neither had participated, nor encouraged, pornographic behaviour of any kind.

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The pictures that have gone viral since the arrests are not from the pool party the women attended, said Tibillo.

They are time stamped from three to five years ago, she said. The women are not in the photos.

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“The photos are at night. The pool party they attended was in the day,” said Tibillo.

The women had never been to Cambodia until September 2017.

“I’m saddened by media’s misrepresentation of my actions at this party,” said Drolet.

Both women are grateful to be home and looked forward to speaking to their family. After the experience they have become “more like sisters,” said Drolet.

Drolet wouldn’t return back to Cambodia after this experience. She here’s a message of caution for all travellers.

“Be aware of the cultures of the country you’re going to.”

Yim Srang, a court spokesman in the northwestern Cambodian province of Siem Reap, said the investigation into the case has been completed and the seven people accused were freed Wednesday. He said three other people remained in detention, but he didn’t know their names or nationalities.

The 10 people — they included five from the United Kingdom, and one each from Norway, the Netherlands and New Zealand — were detained when police raided a commercially organized party at a rented villa in Siem Reap town and found people dancing at an event described as a pub crawl.

Police who conducted the raid originally detained almost 90 people, and it was unclear why they singled out 10 to remain in custody and be charged.

Police said those caught in the raid had been “dancing pornographically” and offended Cambodian standards of morality. They face up to a year in jail if convicted.

With files from Fatima Syed

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