The Kompong Chhnang Provincial Court on Tuesday charged two construction workers with intentional violence for allegedly beating two of their Chinese supervisors on Monday, police said.
Pech Ry, chief of the provincial police’s minor crimes bureau, said two supervisors at the Chinese-owned Jiun Ye Garment factory in Samakki Meanchey district were seriously beaten by Cambodian employees Muos Chhan Thea, 29 and Tang Ry, 33, at a construction site at the factory on Monday afternoon.
“It started when the construction workers had a drinking party at the construction site,” he said.
After a verbal argument broke out between the intoxicated Cambodian workers, Chinese supervisors Wang Mingchen, 63, and Peng Gienhong, 32, attempted to calm the situation but came under attack, Mr. Ry said.
“[The suspects] beat the Chinese men because they drank too much wine and then got into an argument with the victims,” he said, adding that the suspects were arrested immediately after the incident at 2 p.m. and sent to the provincial court for questioning on Tuesday.
Srey Soda, deputy chief of the provincial police’s serious crimes bureau, said the suspects grew angry with the supervisors for insulting the workers—a large group of men and one woman—while attempting to stop the argument.
“They beat the Chinese men after they insulted them too much, and used a shovel…resulting in serious injuries,” he said, adding that both victims were sent to a hospital in Phnom Penh for treatment.
The suspects, he said, “were placed in provincial police custody this evening and [today] we will send them to pretrial detention at the provincial prison.”
An administrator at the Jiun Ye factory confirmed that Chinese supervisors were in charge of the construction site but said she was not aware of a violent altercation having taken place there.
