Police seek wife accused of acid attack

via CAAI

Monday, 27 December 2010 19:08 Mom Kunthear

Police are seeking the arrest of a woman accused of throwing acid on her husband during a dispute at their home in Kampong Cham province’s Ponhea Krek district on Sunday night.

District police chief Prak Bun Nun said officials learned of the attack after the victim was admitted to the provincial hospital, by which time the suspect had fled with the couple’s two young children.

He said officials intend to pursue a prosecution, despite the victim indicating that he does not want to press charges against his wife.

“She has to face the law even though her husband did not sue her,” Prak Bun Nun said. “She has to be punished through the law.”

Speaking from a ward in the provincial hospital on Monday, Thy Bunthen, 33, said his wife had attacked him because she was angry he had been having an affair.

“I used to love another woman, but it was one month ago and I don’t know why my wife kept her anger until now,” he said.

Thy Bunthen said he did not want to press charges against his wife because he believed he was partially to blame for the attack, and because their children would be left motherless if she was imprisoned.

“It is not her mistake, it is my mistake that caused this problem and she couldn’t control her anger that’s what made her do that to me,” he said.

He said his burns were painful but not serious.

“I got injured from the right side of the neck down to the waist, and the villagers and friends sent me to the hospital to save me,” he said.

Prak Bun Nun said this was the second acid attack case in Ponhea Krek district this year.

Staff at the Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity were unable to provide updated statistics yesterday, but the organisation recorded 18 attacks involving 32 victims – plus four burn victims who were injured in accidents rather than attacks – nationwide in the first nine months of this year. Last year, CASC recorded a total of 28 attacks involving 33 victims.