The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a guilty verdict against a man who kidnapped and murdered an 8-year-old boy in Phnom Penh in 2012, a court official said.
Kong Rasisak’s body was found inside a cistern at the Chumpus Ka’ek pagoda in Chbar Ampov district on February 5, 2012.
According to investigators, Nov Saran, 24, a teacher at the ICS International School, abducted the boy at the school the day before, then demanded $3,500 from the boy’s parents.
But by the time the parents paid the money, the boy was already dead. Mr. Saran was arrested two days later and sentenced to 27 years in prison later that year.
The Appeal Court subsequently upheld the verdict and the Supreme Court on Monday cemented the decision, according to deputy prosecutor Ouk Kimsith.
“Although the lawyer suggested that the defendant only committed the crime for the first time, this was a brutal murder of an 8-year-old child,” he said. “The suspect had already killed the schoolboy when he extorted money from the boy’s parents by telling them that the boy was still alive.”
