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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