Suspects in Koh Dach murders to be charged

via CAAI

Thursday, 27 January 2011 15:02 Mom Kunthear

Three suspects arrested earlier this week in connection with a robbery and shooting in Russey Keo’s Koh Dach commune that left two people dead and a third severely injured are expected to be charged tomorrow in Phnom Penh Municipal Court.

“The three suspects have been questioned and will now be sent to court,” said Phnom Penh Municipal Police Chief Touch Naruth yesterday.

“The police are searching for an additional suspect who has already been identified.”

Touch Naruth said that the suspects have been detained at the Russey Keo district police station since their arrest.

Hem Ven, 72, and his son Hem Vannak, 37, died after both being shot once in the head, Touch Naruth said.

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The three suspects have been questions and will now be sent to court.

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Krouch Makmin, 69, was also severely injured in the attack and is being treated at Phnom Penh’s Calmette Hospital.

Koh Dach commune chief Path El said the three suspects were not residents of Koh Dach commune, but appear to have known their victims.

“The unofficial information that I received is that it may be a case of revenge,” he said. “One suspect is a former driver of one victim, and they may have had a dispute over a woman,” he said, adding that the investigation was still ongoing.

Tim Sareth, Koh Dach commune police chief, said earlier this week that investigators had initially treated the case as a robbery.

“In our initial evaluations, we believe it was a robbery and was possibly motivated by revenge, as the suspects took three phones and about 50,000 riel from the victims’ home.”

Path El said the deceased would be buried on Friday.

Earlier this week, Deputy National Police Chief Sok Phal said violent crime in Cambodia had dropped in 2010 compared with the previous year.

“There were 3,087 cases [of violent crime], which is a decrease of 369 cases compared with 2009,” he said.

He added that incidents of robbery fell in 2010 by 144 cases over last year’s numbers, while murders dropped by 50 cases.