The Preah Vihear Provincial court has charged the chief monk at a pagoda in Chheb district with premeditated murder following the discovery of a woman’s badly beaten body buried behind his home, officials said Wednesday.
Provincial military police arrested Moul Sokny, 31, on the grounds of the Khemara Seima pagoda in Kompong Sralao II commune on Sunday, after villagers and students at the pagoda complained of a putrid smell coming from behind his home.
Provincial court prosecutor Ly Lon said he charged Mr. Sokny on Tuesday.
“After questioning the suspect, we decided to charge him with premeditated murder and place him in provisional detention at the provincial prison,” he said.
“The suspect has confessed to the murder and we have enough evidence to charge him. He faces life in prison.”
Deputy provincial military police commander Chu Bunsong, who led the investigation, said he received complaints of the odor on Saturday and that his officers visited the pagoda on Sunday, when they discovered the body of Mith Tuoch, 64, buried behind Mr. Sokny’s home.
“When the local people asked [Mr. Sokny] about the bad smell behind his house, he told them that it was the body of a dog,” Mr. Bunsong said. “We went there and dug up the earth and found the body, after which we searched the chief monk’s home.”
“We found blood on the walls …and a bloody wooden stick nearby the house,” he said, adding that hair matted with blood was found on the stick.
“The body of victim had broken teeth, and the skull shows that she was beaten many times on the head before she died.”
Mr. Bunsong, who was present for Mr. Sokny’s questioning by military police, said Mr. Sokny said he killed Mith Tuoch—whom he knew well—over a land dispute.
“Last year, the victim asked the chief monk to help her buy some residential land for $2,000, but the monk cheated her and put his name on the land title,” he said, adding that the land was in Kompong Sralao II commune.
In early December, Mr. Bunsong said, Mr. Sokny transferred the land title to his brother-in-law, who then pawned off the land title to raise money for his battery-charging business.
When Mith Tuoch—who lived in nearby Siem Pang district in Stung Treng province—discovered that she’d been duped, she began telling villagers in Kompong Sralao II commune that Mr. Sokny had cheated her, Mr Bunsong said.
Infuriated that his reputation was being tarnished, Mr. Sokny invited Mith Tuoch to his home on December 9, according to Mr. Bunsong.
“When the victim arrived, he used a wooden stick to beat her many times on the head and then he called his younger brother-in-law to help bury the body,” he said, declining to reveal the identity of the brother-in-law because police were seeking to arrest him.
Phing Thong, chief of Kompong Sralao II commune, said Mr. Sokny moved to the Khemara Seima pagoda several years earlier.
“He started working there about four years ago and became the chief monk three years ago,” he said.
“The people liked him. He helped repair the pagoda’s buildings. We never imagined he’d do something like this. We’re really disappointed and shamed.”
