Brothers on the Run After Artisan’s Murder

Police in Kompong Cham province’s Koh Sotin district are searching for two brothers and stone carvers who allegedly beat a rival artisan to death on Saturday afternoon over a business dispute, police said on Monday.

Sorn Sakhun, chief of police in Koh Sotin commune, said the brothers—whom he declined to name—had been in a price war with the victim, Thon Vuthan, 30, who also ran a stone-carving business in the area.

Mr. Sakhun, citing witness accounts, said the brothers spent Saturday morning drinking palm wine with Thon Vuthan and six other people at a shop in front of a pagoda but left at about 2 p.m. after the victim mocked them for attempting to undercut the price of his statues.

“The victim…repeatedly used rude words to the suspects at the party,” he said. The victim ran into the brothers outside the pagoda two hours later, he said, and one of them clubbed him over the head with a stick.

Mr. Sakhun said the man was initially taken to the provincial referral hospital and was later transferred to a hospital in Vietnam, but died en route.

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