Police in Kompong Speu province said they arrested three men on Sunday over suspected involvement in the attempted kidnapping of a food trader two days earlier.
On Friday at about 12:30 p.m., Phnong Ki, 50, was driving her motorbike along a quiet road in Odong district when she was stopped by a man and taken into the nearby woods, said provincial penal police chief Sam Sak.
“According to her description, she was driving her motorbike to collect some freshly harvested rice she had already bought on credit when the suspect appeared and stopped her,” Mr. Sak said on Sunday.
After binding her wrists and tying her feet to a small tree, the suspect called someone from her family on her phone to demand $20,000 for her release, said Mr. Sak, adding that while the suspect was preoccupied, Ms. Ki managed to escape.
“She successfully removed the ties on her legs and ran out of the forest to a local person’s house, where she asked for help removing the bindings on her wrists,” he said.
“She went straight to the commune police office to register a complaint, after which our police forces started to hunt for the suspect according to the victim’s description of his identity, such as voice and face and clothing,” Mr. Sak said.
“We found that her description really looked like the suspect we arrested,” he added.
Mr. Sak said that two men were arrested in their homes in Damnak Raing commune, about 2 km from the victim’s house, and sent to provincial police on Friday
afternoon.
He said he was unsure about the details of the arrests, the names of the suspects or how the other two were linked to the kidnapping.
“The offenders are still at my place [provincial police headquarters] and we will send them to court tomorrow morning,” said Mr. Sak, adding that the court documents were already prepared.
