Tep Vanny and two other imprisoned women from the Boeng Kak community injured themselves Friday in protest of being confined to their cells, according to Ms. Vanny’s husband, Ou Kong Chea. Mr. Kong Chea said that he received a call at about 2 p.m. Friday informing him of the incident.
“I got a call from an inmate at Correctional Center 2, telling me that three Boeng Kak women held at CC2 had head injuries after banging their heads against the wall,” he said, adding that an argument had allegedly broken out when guards said they would be let out of the cell only when they stopped breathing.
“They smashed their heads against the wall because the prison guards did not unlock them to get air outside the detention rooms,” he said.
One of the women, Kong Chantha, needed stitches for a serious head wound, while Ms. Vanny and Bou Chhorvy are nursing bruised and swollen heads.
Kuy Bunsorn, chief of the Interior Ministry’s general department of prisons and CC2 director Khlaut Dara could not be reached.
