PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times): Cambodia's Kampong speu provincial court charged and jailed a man for the murder of a monk whom he suspected of having an extramarital affair with his wife.
The court also charged his wife and younger sister as accomplices in the crime. On Saturday, the court pressed murder charges against the three accused individuals.
The crime occurred around 9:30am on October 16 at Punthtra Ram Pagoda in Kraing Pnao village, Phnom Sruoch district. However, it wasn’t until a few hours later that a local woman discovered the victim’s lifeless body.
The suspects were identified as Mok Meng, a 40-year-old farmer, his wife Poun Sreyoun, 35 and his 32-year-old sister Lon Sreeyneang.
The two women are employed as garment workers. The farmer has been charged with premediated murder while the women have been charged with complicity in the crime. All of them face jail terms if convicted.
According to Phnom Sruoch district deputy police chief Major Chum Saroeun, the victim was a Buddhist monk, 42.
Kampong Speu provincial penal police conducted a murder investigation in collaboration with the penal department of the Ministry of Interior. As a result, the three suspects were arrested in various locations in Phnom Penh and Prey Veng province on October 30.
Following the arrests, police confiscated key pieces of evidence including a Buddha statue, sacred objects and clothing used to commit the murder by strangulation.
“During police interrogation, the suspect confessed that he had killed the victim by attacking him with a big stick and strangling him to death,” Maj Saroeun said yesterday. “He confessed that he killed the victim because he was jealous and angry with the monk for having an affair with his wife. He admitted that he forced his wife to prepare a plot to kill the victim,” he said.
“After killing the victim, he stole belongings and fled to his mother-in-law’s house in Prey Veng province,” he added.
He said that the three suspects now have been sent to prison pending the trial. - Khmer Times
