REAKSMEY KONGKEA

Buth Reaksmey Kongkea   The anti-drug police force emerged successful in yet another major crackdown conducted on January 20 midnight.   In the Monday midnight major drug overhaul, the police in the Anti-Drug Department of the Ministry of Interior, in coordination with Preah Sihanouk provincial anti-drug police and maritime police, seized more than 1.56 tonnes of narcotics off Sihanoukville from five suspects, comprising two Chinese, two Taiwanese and a Filipino.   Lieutenant General Khoeng Sarath, Chief of Anti-Drug Department in the Ministry of Interior, told a press conference yesterday that the arrests in Preah Sihanouk province were made at about 3 am on Monday midnight on two speedboats parked in the middle of the sea in the province’s Stung Hav district.   The another crackdown on Monday was carried out around the same time along the Laos border in Preah Vihear province and the anti-drug police nabbed three men involved in trafficking of 1,020 kilogram...

Buth Reaksmey Kongkea A physician who serves as the general director of a run-down polyclinic facility in the municipality was prosecuted by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court and placed under arrest for allegedly engaging in the kidneys and organs and defrauding 18 victims out of about $1 million. The guy was identified as Ngeth Samoun, the General Director of the Metro RLV Polyclinic, who resides in the Sen Sok area of Phnom Penh's O-Bek K'om commune, according to a court record dated January 25. Article 22 of the Law on the Management of Donation Transplantations of Cell Tissues and Human Organs charges the accused of "illegal organ trafficking (kidney transplant)" and Articles 377 and 378 of the Criminal Code charge the accused of "fraud." If found guilty, the accused may spend seven to fifteen years in prison. The victim claimed there was illegal organ and kidney trafficking as well as a fraudulent case at the Metro RLV Polyclinic in O-Bek K'om commune,...

Buth Reaksmey Kongkea   In the first appeal hearing that began yesterday, the Phnom Penh Appeal Court denied the request of Kem Sokha, the former CNRP leader under house arrest, to lift restrictions on visits from his family and friends, including foreigners.   The Judges Council of the Phnom Penh Appeal Court yesterday began the appeal hearing of the former opposition leader under tight security, on the charge of “conspiring with foreign power” to overthrow the elected government between 1993 and 2017.   The 70-year-old was sentenced by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on March 3 last year to 27 years in prison and also banned him from politics, following his arrest on September 3, 2017.     The judges’ council members comprised Presiding Judge Im Vannak, judges Khun Sona and Ly Sokleng and two deputy prosecutors, I'm Saphan and Hean Rith, while veteran lawyers Ang Udom and Meng Sopheary, represented as Sokha’s defense lawyers.    Lawyer ...

Buth Reaksmey Kongkea Former President of the Khmer Rise Party William Guang and four colleagues were sentenced   on January 29, 2024   by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court from four to six years each for a botched armed robbery in Kampong Speu province’s Kong Pisei district in 2021. This is the second case of armed robbery by Guang and his gang. In the first case, the group was sentenced in 2022 by the municipal court from six to nine years each for robbing online vendor An Siev Mey in Phnom Penh earlier in 2022. The sentences will be served consecutively. In yesterday’s court case, the five accused were Sok Sovann Vathana Sabung alias William Guang, 44, the former President of Khmer Rise Party (KRP); Or Ramorn, 33, the former driver of William Guang; Sovann Ranuth, 26, the former personal assistant of Guang; and Keth March, 26, former account of the KRP. Presiding Judge Chhun Davy stated that the accused William Guang was sentenced by the court to six years while Ramorn...

Buth Reaksmey Kongkea The Phnom Penh Municipal Court arrested and charged yesterday the former famous singer and film star Keo Pisey for allegedly breaching trust and issuing a dud cheque worth nearly $20,000 last year. The former celebrity was charged on two counts of “Breach of Trust and Issuing Dud Cheque” under Article 391 and 392 of the Criminal Code and under Article 231 of the Law on Negotiable Instrument and Payment Transactions, according to the court’s arrest warrant issued by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court’s prosecutor. Pisey, 27, also known as Ratanak Pisey, is the owner of the Eli KP Trading company and resides in Sen Sok district’s Khmuonh district in the capital. If convicted, she faces between one to five years in prison. Lieutenant Colonel Sim Saveth, the deputy chief of the penal office in the Ministry of Interior, told Khmer Times yesterday that after Pisey’s arrest, she was sent by penal police from the Ministry of Interior to the Phnom Penh Municipal Cou...

  Buth Reaksmey Kongkea   In a remote area of a village in the Ang Snoul district of Kandal province, a five-month pregnant woman was killed by having her throat slashed and burned alive. Police are now hunting for the suspects.  Veng Thavry, a 26-year-old former garment factory worker who resides in Rumlech village, Tuol Pich commune, Kandal province, was identified as the victim by Major Nuon Chamroeun, the Deputy Chief of Tuol Pich commune police. According to Maj Chamroeun, the victim's husband claimed that on January 16, the victim received a call from a suspected debtor who wanted to meet with her in the village to collect the debt.  He said that the victim's spouse had driven her to an arranged location in Rumlech village on his motorcycle.  He claimed that after they got to the appointment location, the wife told the husband to drop her off there and he was told to wait for her in a local coffee shop.  The husband then drove his motorb...