A convicted thief who allegedly extorted a woman for hundreds of dollars via Facebook from behind bars has been transferred from the Prey Veng provincial prison to Phnom Penh while an investigation to find involved prison officials continues, a government official said.
Nuth Savna, spokesman for the Interior Ministry’s general department of prisons, said Yem Bros, 43, was transferred to Prey Sar prison and interrogated on Wednesday.
“He cannot have worked by himself—there will be many involved,” Mr. Savna said.
“We need to do our own investigation.”
Kandal provincial police chief Eav Chamroeun said on Tuesday that Mr. Bros had claimed the prison’s deputy chief gave him permission to use his laptop and smartphones.
On Wednesday, Mr. Savna said Chan Kimseng, the prison department director, had now advised the country’s prison chiefs to more stringently enforce a ban on personal devices.
According to police, Mr. Bros threatened to publish explicit footage from a private video chat with the woman unless she transferred $500 to him, which she did.
The woman filed a complaint when he demanded another $5,000.
