Three Japanese tourists who were attacked outside a Phnom Penh nightclub in December have recovered and returned home, but authorities have not arrested their assailants, officials said.
The men, attacked Dec 23, returned to Japan after treatment in a Bangkok hospital, said Eiji Yamamoto, counselor for the Japanese Embassy.
Two of the men, stabbed with broken bottles at a food stall outside Daun Penh district’s Manhattan’s nightclub, suffered serious injuries. The third man, bludgeoned with a teapot, received minor injuries.
Daun Penh police on duty at the time identified one of five suspects as Nhim Pov, who is Prime Minister Hun Sen’s nephew and son of Nhim Chantara, Cambodia’s ambassador to Burma.
Phnom Penh Municipal Police Chief Suon Chheangly said police are unable to arrest the five, whom police allege were led by Nhim Pov.
“If we see them, we will arrest them promptly without thinking they are sons of senior officials,” Suon Chheangly said. “But I received information saying they had escaped to a foreign country after the incident.”
Yamamoto said he isn’t so sure.
“I hope the authorities will arrest them,” he said. “I do not think they escaped overseas.”
This is the second time a son of Nhim Chantara has been wanted in connection to a violent crime. In 1999, Nhim Pisey, older brother of Nhim Pov, was apprehended after a shooting incident in which two people were injured outside Manhattan’s. He was released one month later after he promised to behave better.
“By the law they must be punished,” Suon Chheangly said of the men who attacked the Japanese tourists. “This gang is a group of bad boys. If the parents cannot educate them, let the law do it instead,” he said.
