Two weeks after a deputy Battambang City governor hit a 4-year-old girl in the face with a block of wood, the child’s mother said Sunday that she filed a lawsuit against him at the provincial court on Thursday.
“The police told me that just taking medicine would make my daughter recover and then…went away without taking any action,” reads the complaint against Dy Pov, the deputy governor.
“I would hereby like to request that the court president finds justice and sentences the offender according to the law,” it states.
The girl’s father, Em Nil, withdrew an initial complaint to military police after receiving $150 from the deputy governor, according to a rights worker helping them with the case. When the mother, Ieng Mom, found out, she insisted on filing a new complaint with the court.
Ms. Mom said yesterday that her daughter, Nil Long Er, was still suffering from the attack, with persistent headaches, nose bleeds and pain inside her left ear.
“[Mr. Pov] did not care about us and said that he had hit my daughter in an attempt to kill her and that we should just take her to hospital,” she said from a relative’s house in Kompong Chhnang province, where she is currently looking after her daughter.
Sin Chanpoeurozet, deputy chief of O’Char commune, where the incident took place, confirmed that a neighbor of the family filed the complaint with the court.
“I believe that after the complaint reaches the court, the court must take action to find justice for the victim,” she said, stating that
Mr. Pov knowingly broke the law and, if convicted, must be fired.
Last week, both provincial governor Chan Sophal and Battambang City governor Sieng Em Wounzy said Mr. Pov would be warned but not punished.
Heng Sayhong, the provincial coordinator for right group Licadho, who wrote the complaint for the family, said the court’s handling of the case would be a clear indication of its willingness to prosecute individuals with political clout.
