Ex-military officer to serve 15-year sentence
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
A former
military officer, who shot to death his fiancée in 2020 at his house in Phnom
Penh’s Por Senchey district and fled, was arrested on Saturday evening and
placed in detention at Police Judiciaire (PJ) prison.
The murder took
place at about 12.15 am on January 16, 2020 at the accused’s apartment in Ramchek
village in the district’s O-Doem commune.
Penal Police
Department officer Lieutenant Colonel Long Sarith named the accused
as Yeun Vandet, 30, a former military major working with Brigade E-70 in
the Ministry of National Defence and lived in Ramchek village.
The victim was
Chun Dina, 26, an online lotion vendor also from the same village, and the two
were engaged to be married but Vandet in a jealous rage murdered his finance.
Vandet was
sentenced in absentia on August 20, 2020 by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to
15 years in prison for murder.
“The judge ordered
him to serve the 15-year-sentence in absentia in the JP prison in Phnom Penh,”
Lt Col Sarith said.
“But he
appealed his 15-year conviction and asked for a retrial after he was recently arrested,
claiming that the sentence was too high,” he said.
Vandet was
arrested on September 14 in Thailand’s Chanthaburi province and later handed
over by Thai police to Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior.
The arrest was
made after Vandet fled to Thailand and lived there for two years and seven
years after he murdered his fiancée.
During police
interrogation, Vandet admitted to committing the offence but said that he did
not intend to kill the victim and expressed his regret.
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