Bomb plot mastermind faces court today: police

Police display a photograph of the alleged mastermind of the bomb plot that targeted the Ministry of Defence. (Photo by: KEM SOVANNARA)

Monday, 12 January 2009
Written by Sam Rith
The Phnom Penh Post

Authorities say the man who allegedly planned a bombing attempt this month was also behind a 2007 bomb attack on the Vietnamese Friendship Monument

FOUR suspects being held in connection with bombs discovered January 2 that appeared to target the Defence Ministry and state television station TV3 will appear before the Phnom Penh Municipal Court today, two days after police announced that the alleged mastermind had confessed to his involvement in the foiled attack.

Speaking at a press conference Saturday, Sok Phal, deputy director general of the National Police, said suspect Som Ek had confessed to masterminding the January 2 plot as well as a foiled attempt to bomb the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument on July 29, 2007.

Som Ek, 44, who has dual Thai-Cambodian citizenship, was born in Kampong Cham's Koh Sotin district and was formerly involved in the Khmer People's National Liberation Front, Sok Phal said. He worked for the Defence Ministry in 1993 and later went to study in the United States for 18 months, where he learned to make explosives. He was jailed for three months in 2003 for forging Defence Ministry documents, he added.

Som Ek was arrested in connection with the January 2 plot on Wednesday in Banteay Meanchey's O'Chrov district.

Sok Phal said Som Ek ordered the bombings in an attempt to get foreign support and funding for the Khmer National Unity Front (KNUF), also known as the Tiger Liberation Movement, which uses the tiger head as its symbol. Som Ek allegedly took pictures of members of the group planning and carrying out the attacks to send to potential donors based outside the country.

Sok Phal compared the KNUF to the Cambodian Freedom Fighters organisation in that both groups receive support from outside donors, but he declined to elaborate on that comparison. He said police were looking to arrest people both inside and outside Cambodia who are allegedly involved with the KNUF.

Police arrested five people in 2007 in connection with the foiled attack on the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument, Sok Phal said, noting that those suspects have been detained in Prey Sar prison. He said police discovered bomb-making materials and a remote-controlled helicopter that could transport a bomb. He said Som Ek claimed in his confession to ordering five people to place bombs in front of the monument.

Police eye bomb plot links

A bomb squad safely detonates an explosive device left outside state television station TV3 on January 2. (Photo by: KEM SOVANNARA)

Friday, 09 January 2009
Written by Sam Rith
The Phnom Penh Post

Authorities say the masterminds of last week's bomb plot may also have been behind the 2007 attack on the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument

POLICE say that their initial investigations into last week's bomb plot that appeared to target the Defence Ministry and a state television station have led them to suspect the perpetrators may be linked to those who executed a similar bomb plot at the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument in July 2007, an official from the Ministry of Interior told the Post Thursday.

Three explosive devices found on January 2 in front of the Defence Ministry and near the offices of TV3 were disassembled and destroyed by mine clearance personnel. In the 2007 plot, three fertiliser bombs were found and safely detonated near the monument, situated in the park opposite Phnom Penh's Wat Botum.

Em Sam An, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Interior and president of the National Secretariat for Anti-Terrorism, said "police now suspect the perpetrators were also connected to the bombing at the [monument]."

Early days yet

Minister of Information Khieu Kanharith said one of two suspects in connection with the foiled plot was arrested Wednesday. The suspect, Som Ek, 44, was arrested in Palelai village, O'Chrov district, Banteay Meanchey province, by police cooperating with the Internal Security Department of the Secretary General Commission National Police stationed in Poipet, said Sun Savuth, deputy criminal police chief for O'Chrov district.

In addition to involvement in the foiled bombing attempt, the warrant used to arrest Som Ek also accused him of attempting to use explosives to destroy the friendship monument in July 2007, Sun Savuth said. Som Ek was the only person listed on the warrant.

Man of many names

Sun Savuth said Som Ek moved around frequently and went by eight different names: Som Ek, Ti To, Srun Seng, Chao Sakada, Chea Kimhoun, Seung Kamsan, Phat Vathna and Meng Saray.

Em Sam An said he expected there would be more arrests in the case but refused to comment further.

"Let the police work on the case for one or two more days," he said.

Police detain man for 2 major bomb plots in Phnom Penh

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- A man allegedly involved in the 2007 explosion of the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument and the 2009 foiled bomb plots in downtown Phnom Penh has been arrested, according to national media on Friday.

Banteay Meanchey provincial police chief Hun Hean said that his officers working with the Ministry of Interior caught 46-year-old Ty To at his home on Wednesday and found 53 different bomb-making items there, including TNT and radio devices, English-language newspaper the Cambodia Daily reported.

"(Ty To) told the police that he was involved with the attempt to blow up the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument and also with the TNT case on the Russian Boulevard (in Phnom Penh)," the newspaper said.

On Jan. 2, 2009, the police detonated three bombs outside the Ministry of National Defense and the state-run No. 3 TV station.

On July 29, 2007, a small bomb exploded right beside the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument. Two men were later arrested to serve terms in prison.

Neither accident caused any damage and casualties.

Five Men Sentenced in Monument Bombing

Bomb defused at the "eyesore" Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship monument commemorating the Vietnamese invasion and more than one decade-long neo-colonial occupation

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
15 August 2008

Click here to listen to the Khmer audio program

Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday sentenced five men between 15 and 17 years in prison for the attempted bombing of a monument in Phnom Penh in July 2007.

Kin Toeurn, 53, Sok Kim Sovat, 51, Soeng Khang, 42, Lim Phen, 32, and Soeng Vy, 31, were each fined 500,000 riel, about $125, in addition to their jail sentences, lawyers said.

Judge Suon Samnang, who presided over the case, said three men were sentenced to 14 years under the charge of terrorism and received an extra year and the fine for the illegal use of explosives. Two other men were sentenced to 16 years for conspiracy to commit terrorism, plus a year and a fine for illegal use of explosives.

The charges stem from a July 29, 2007, attempt to blow up the Cambodian-Vietnamese Friendship Monument, which overlooks a park in Phnom Penh's Daun Penh district. After one trigger explosion, police found three unexploded buckets of chemical fertilizer. No one was injured and no property was damaged.

The five men were apprehended within days of the event.

Four of the five belonged to the Khmer Kampuchea Krom ethnic group, lawyers said.

At least two of the men were beaten in police custody and forced to sign a confession, according to the lawyers, Khun Sovanrithy and Lueurn Sovann, who work for the Cambodian Defenders Project.

Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak denied the accusation.

"It is not surprising, because when they lose the case, they always accuse the police of doing that," he said. "But in general, we have never done like that."

Kep Chuktema orders the repair of the Cambodia-Vietnam friendship monument

Cambodia's symbol of oppression and foreign occupation

Thursday, October 18, 2007
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Kep Chuktema, the governor of Phnom Penh, ordered the repair and beautification of the Cambodia-Vietnam friendship memorial monument located at the public park in front of the Wat Botumvatey (Botum pagoda), in order to give it the dignity of a place to remember the gratefulness to the (invading) Vietnamese army which came to free (and occupy) the Cambodian people from the genocidal Pol Pot regime. The Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper reported that Kep Chuktema issued directive to experts from the city hall and professors from the Royal University of Fine Arts to beautify and repair the statue of the Vietnamese-Cambodian soldiers, and to fix the terrace surrounding this statue to make it look nice. This monument was built under the (Vietnamese-installed) State of Kampuchea regime, and one of them was built in every province to thank the (invading) Vietnamese army which came to liberate (and occupy) the Cambodian people from the killing by the Pol Pot regime.