Well, this is one hell of a mixed-up tragedy. It could be Hamlet.
It all started when Mey Kimheng was arrested for the brutal murder of a woman, Ly Davy, who had rejected his advances. (
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/defe ... ht-114440/)
Following this event, Ke Vuthy,the cousin of the suspect, was found with his throat slit 3 times; suicide according to the police, murder by the hand of his uncle Mey Sarith, according to the victim's family. The family of Ke Vuthy say that he was killed for telling the truth about the relationship between his cousin,Mey Kimheng and the murder victim, Ly Davy. They blame police corruption for the suicide conclusion.
Read all about it here, and make sense of it if you can, thanks to this article by the Khmer Times:
Dead Student’s Family Seeks Inquiry and Justice
Khmer Times/May Titthara Friday, 09 September 2016
Although medical student Ke Vuthy, 25, was found with his throat slit three times on the morning of July 6 in Phnom Penh, police concluded he had committed suicide.
On Wednesday his father asked local rights group Adhoc to liaise with authorities to investigate the case again and to prove his son’s death was not suicide.
Ke Sothea, a medical official with the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, maintains the murderer is his own brother, Mey Sarith.
“My brother killed his nephew, my son, because my son named his cousin Mey Kimheng [Mr. Sarith’s son], a first year math student at the Royal University, as a suspect in the killing of a female military official near Depot market in June,” he told Khmer Times.
Mr. Kimheng was charged with the premeditated murder of 36-year-old Ly Davy, a major in the Defense Ministry’s military service department, and is still awaiting trial.
Mr. Sothea yesterday claimed his brother had been angry and disappointed that his son had told police about a long history of incidents between his cousin and the victim, instead of trying to hide and protect him.
“Mr. Sarith was frustrated, and then got angry and blamed my son and then threw him out of his house,” he said.
Mr. Vuthy had been living with his relatives, next door to Ms. Davy, at the time of the murder.
Mr. Sothea said his sister-in-law had called him to tell him his son had committed suicide by an overdose of pills, but once he arrived at their house in Por Senchey district, he found his son’s bloody body in a room with blood spatters on the wall. At this point the police had not been called, he said.
“My son died in the house which had only Mr. Sarith and my son inside, so why didn’t he report it to the police?”
Mr. Vuthy’s mother, Chum Sokroeun, claimed that the first police on the scene had concluded that her son had been murdered, most likely by his uncle. But they later changed their statements, claiming that upon investigation, it had been a suicide, caused by the stress of being associated with Ms. Davy’s murder.
“They changed so fast because of corruption with the police. My brother-in-law Mr. Sarith bribed them with money. Until now, all the evidence is at Por Senchey district police office. They haven’t sent it off for further investigation by experts.”
She said that despite her husband filing complaints with the Interior Ministry and municipal court to investigate the case further, they had heard nothing.
Yim Saran, the Por Senchey district police chief who worked on the case, declined to comment.
“I’m busy with a meeting,” he said and was unreachable afterwards.
According to the initial police report on July 6, Mr. Sarith told police he discovered Mr. Vuthy’s body after he did not respond to calls and went to his room to check on him. He denied having killed him.
“I am a good person, so I have nothing to be afraid off, because I have fed him since he was born,” Mr. Sarith reportedly told police.
The report noted that despite claims that Mr. Vuthy had killed himself with a knife, there was no knife at the scene and Mr. Sarith had blood on his trousers. They took him in for questioning.
However, the next day, district police said it was suicide, based upon investigations by municipal police and medical officials attached to the court. Mr. Sarith was released without charge.
Adhoc human rights monitor and investigator Soung Sen Karona said Mr. Sothea’s complaint was now being studied.
“According to what the victim’s father has said, and his complaint, we believe that there are many points which need to be checked again,” he said.
“Such as, if Mr. Mey Sarith was at home with the victim only, why didn’t he report the case to the police?”
He also noted claims that Mr. Sarith had threatened to kill his nephew by cutting his throat after he told police about his cousin.
“And if we look at the cut throat, it’s all the way to the bone, which means a lot of strength was used. If Mr. Vuthy had cut himself, he would have only cut a vein.”
Once all the information has been investigated, Mr. Sen Karona said they would liaise with relevant authorities to raise concerns and possibly move forward with a new investigation. He also offered to provide a lawyer.
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/29569/ ... d-justice/
