A woman and her two adult daughters are scheduled to appear in Kompong Cham provincial court today on charges of beating to death their husband and father, in what the women claimed was retaliation for a history of abuse, police said.
Lon Saraun, 44, Lon Sareth, 22, and Lon Sarun, 20, surrendered to Chikor commune police in Tbong Khmum district Thursday. They later told district police that the young women came to their mother’s aid as she was being beaten on Tuesday and killed farmer Ty Run, 42, with hoes and wooden sticks, district policeChief Vann Krim said.
Lon Saraun and her daughters complained to police and provincial court several times that her husband physically abused her and threatened to rape the young women, district penal police Chief Long Sarin said Thursday.
The women filed a lawsuit against Ty Run earlier this year, prompting him to temporarily flee their Svay Tep village home. He returned shortly before the Khmer New Year holiday, Long Sarin said.
Despite the allegations, police took no action against Ty Run. Police made a few visits to the house, but Ty Run was never home, Long Sarin said.
The proposed domestic violence law, long stalled in the National Assembly, would give local police more authority to intervene in domestic conflicts.
Domestic violence is increasing nationally, Minister of Women’s Affairs Mu Sochua said Thursday.
The case is the third such killing in Tbong Khmum district, Long Sarin said. In Choeur Teal village, Peam Chilaing commune in 1995 and in Choeung Lorng village, Suong commune in 2001, women confessed to killing their husbands in retaliation for domestic abuse. In both cases, the women were convicted and sentenced to 10 years’ probation, he said.
“Why did those wives kill their husbands? Because people don’t trust the Cambodian court system, so they need to judge [criminals] by themselves,” Mu Sochua said.
