Court finds former Phnom Penh police chief free of extortion charge
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday found Heng Peov, former Phnom Penh police chief, and his associate free of the charge that they extorted 11,000 U.S. dollars from a South Korean Man.
Presiding judge Iv Kim Sri said that there was not enough evidence to say that Heng Peov ordered Meng Say in 2005 to take the money from Li Kyong Hor in return for stop of police investigation of his alleged crime of human trafficking.
Prosecutor Sok Roeurn charged Heng Peov and his assistant of extorting the money, after they found that Li Kyong Hor and his staff members had allegedly organized illegal marriage for Cambodian girls and South Korean men.
At the court, Heng Peov denied the charge, saying that "I didn't receive any money and didn't order my associates to extort money from all the South Korean men, either. Instead, I myself helped them on this case and I also saved the face of our country."
In 2005 as Phnom Penh police chief, he ordered to release Li Kyong Hor and his staff members as well as some Cambodian girls, whose mothers allowed them to marry South Korean men but therefore incurred complaints from the South Korean Embassy, he said.
It might be one of his associates, Yun Yet, who had deep and serious conflicts with him, that extorted the money, he said, while repeatedly asking to bring him to the court for confrontation face to face.
Yut Yet was fired from the police after Heng Peov was arrested over a variety of charges.
Muong Sokun, lawyer for Meng Say and former chief of Phnom Penh police's anti-human trafficking office, said that Li Kyong Hor once recognized from the photo that Yut Yet took the money from him.
"It is not my client who extorted the money from Li," he added.
In addition, the court is still to give the verdict against Heng Peov and his associates on March 22 over their illegal detention of a woman in police cell, and on March 27 over their shooting of an electricity official who then became disabled for life. In December 2006, Heng Peov, then 49 years old, was sentenced by the court in absentia to 18 years in jail for masterminding the murder of a Phnom Penh court judge, Sok Sethamony, in 2004.
He was later deported from Malaysia back to Cambodia and is imprisoned in Prey Sor Prison at the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
The one legged man served as police chief of Phnom Penh until late 2005. Then he was promoted to under-secretary of state at the Interior Ministry and personal adviser for Prime Minister Hun Sen. Before the investigation started against him, he managed to fled overseas and stayed in Singapore and Malaysia in tandem.
Source: Xinhua
Presiding judge Iv Kim Sri said that there was not enough evidence to say that Heng Peov ordered Meng Say in 2005 to take the money from Li Kyong Hor in return for stop of police investigation of his alleged crime of human trafficking.
Prosecutor Sok Roeurn charged Heng Peov and his assistant of extorting the money, after they found that Li Kyong Hor and his staff members had allegedly organized illegal marriage for Cambodian girls and South Korean men.
At the court, Heng Peov denied the charge, saying that "I didn't receive any money and didn't order my associates to extort money from all the South Korean men, either. Instead, I myself helped them on this case and I also saved the face of our country."
In 2005 as Phnom Penh police chief, he ordered to release Li Kyong Hor and his staff members as well as some Cambodian girls, whose mothers allowed them to marry South Korean men but therefore incurred complaints from the South Korean Embassy, he said.
It might be one of his associates, Yun Yet, who had deep and serious conflicts with him, that extorted the money, he said, while repeatedly asking to bring him to the court for confrontation face to face.
Yut Yet was fired from the police after Heng Peov was arrested over a variety of charges.
Muong Sokun, lawyer for Meng Say and former chief of Phnom Penh police's anti-human trafficking office, said that Li Kyong Hor once recognized from the photo that Yut Yet took the money from him.
"It is not my client who extorted the money from Li," he added.
In addition, the court is still to give the verdict against Heng Peov and his associates on March 22 over their illegal detention of a woman in police cell, and on March 27 over their shooting of an electricity official who then became disabled for life. In December 2006, Heng Peov, then 49 years old, was sentenced by the court in absentia to 18 years in jail for masterminding the murder of a Phnom Penh court judge, Sok Sethamony, in 2004.
He was later deported from Malaysia back to Cambodia and is imprisoned in Prey Sor Prison at the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
The one legged man served as police chief of Phnom Penh until late 2005. Then he was promoted to under-secretary of state at the Interior Ministry and personal adviser for Prime Minister Hun Sen. Before the investigation started against him, he managed to fled overseas and stayed in Singapore and Malaysia in tandem.
Source: Xinhua
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