Jailed man blocked from visitors

via CAAI

Wednesday, 03 November 2010 15:01 May Titthara

FAMILY members of a man shot last month by one of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s bodyguards and then imprisoned in Koh Kong say prison officials have not allowed them to visit their relative, despite his worsening health condition.

Twenty-three-year-old Luk Lykea was shot in the shoulder during an argument at a restaurant in Koh Kong province’s Khemarak Phomin town on October 20, said Ou Lymom, the victim’s older sister. The man who shot him, Uy Mao, one of Hun Sen’s bodyguards, was detained briefly following the shooting and then released, she said, whereas Luk Lykea was kept in custody.

“It is an injustice for my wounded brother, who has been detained in the prison without any allowance for his relatives to visit,” she said.

She added that her brother, a blacksmith, was not a gangster and was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. “It was his out of luck day eating at a problem place,” she said.

“I am worried about my brother’s health. He does not have enough medicine to treat his wounds in the prison, and it is the cold season, which makes him suffer even more.”

Neang Boratinou, provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc, said the case was strange, since the apparent perpetrator was released while the victim was thrown in prison.

“We don’t know how the case is progressing because [it] is still under investigation,” he said.

Samol Thearith, chief of Koh Kong provincial prison, said he was not aware of the issue, but that the authorities might not have allowed the relatives to visit because the case was under investigation by the court.

Tub Chunheng, the provincial prosecutor, declined to comment on the case, saying he did not wish to speak on the phone. Hing Bunhean, commander of Hun Sen’s bodyguard unit, could not be reached for comment yesterday.