The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday sentenced three men, including one who has also been charged in the country’s largest-ever methamphetamine case, to five years in prison for drug possession and use in Stung Treng province.
The trio—Liv Soeu, 43, Uon Prosmoeun, 33, and Heng Sim, 25—were arrested on April 10 last year in Stung Treng City, where authorities confiscated 19 grams of crystal meth, said municipal court spokesman Suos Vithyearandy.
The case was transferred to Phnom Penh earlier this year after Mr. Soeu was charged in a separate case in which police confiscated nearly 55 kg of meth from an apartment in the capital—the largest such bust in Cambodia to date.
Mr. Soeu is suspected of helping to run a drug network by telephone from his prison cell in Stung Treng, officials have said.
In addition to the prison sentences, Presiding Judge Kim Rathnarin also fined each of the three 10 million riel, or about $2,500.
Mr. Soeu’s lawyer, Chong Eav Heng, said his client told the court the drugs were for personal use, and that he would appeal for a shorter sentence.
