3 Men Charged in Death of Mine Expert, Translator

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday charged three men, including a former deputy of the late Khmer Rouge military commander Ta Mok, for their alleged involvement in the 1996 kidnapping and killing of a British demining expert and his Cam­bodian translator.

In March 1996, British deminer Christopher Howes and his interpreter Houn Hourth were abducted in Anlong Veng-a Khmer Rouge military stronghold at the time-and later killed by a cadre under the command of Ta Mok.

RCAF Infantry Major General Khem Ngon, 58, a former deputy to Ta Mok, and Loch Mao, 56, a government official in Oddar Meanchey province’s Anlong Veng district, were charged with the illegal detention and premeditated killing of the two men, Phnom Penh Municipal Court Judge Ke Sakhon said Wednesday.

Chep Cheat, 33, an Anlong Veng villager, was also charged with premeditated killing, Ke Sakhon said, adding that military police arrested the men after they finally surfaced from years of hiding in the jungle.

“They stayed in the jungle so it took time,” he said.

Ke Sakhon declined to comment as to why the case is being handled by the Phnom Penh court and not the Siem Reap court, under whose jurisdiction Oddar Meanchey province falls.

National military police commander Sao Sokha said Wednesday that his officers made the arrests over the weekend after receiving an order from the Municipal Court, adding that the three accused men are being held at Prey Sar prison in Phnom Penh.

Officials at the Mines Advisory Group Cambodia, Howes’ employer at the time of his abduction, declined to comment on the case.

An official at the British Embassy also declined to comment on the specific details of the case but welcomed the arrests nonetheless.

“We welcome the arrests and the progress made on this long standing case,” the official wrote in an e-mail.

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