Two unidentified gunmen shot and critically wounded a Cambodian businesswoman near the Inter-Continental Hotel in the Chamkar Mon district of Phnom Penh, police said Monday.
Shot at close range, Khov Pavseng, 44, was hit in the jaw and right hand as she sat in the rear seat of a Mercedes-Benz vehicle outside the Visal Sok Hospital on Monineath Boulevard, Municipal Penal Police Chief Reach Sokhon said.
A third bullet fired by the attackers missed its intended target and pierced the rear, left-side passenger door of the luxury vehicle.
Khov Pavseng, owner of a distribution outlet for Jet brand cigarettes in the Phsar Olympic area and a property dealer, was taken to Calmette Hospital where she was in critical condition, a doctor at the hospital said Monday.
The gunmen, who wore safety helmets, escaped the scene of the shooting on a motorcycle, Reach Sokhon said. “According to the early conclusion of our police investigation, this case was the result of a business dispute or it was involved with her personal business,” Reach Sokhon said.
Police investigating the case alleged that Khov Pavseng may have been involved in criminal activity.
A 17-year-old girl who was in the victim’s vehicle at the time of the attack reported that Khov Pavseng had procured her for the sex industry and was in the process of having her blood tested for HIV at Visal Sok hospital before selling her to customers as a virgin, police said.
“According to the girl…because she was poor, she sold her virginity to the victim,” Toep Kum, Chamkar Mon District deputy police chief, said Monday.
In April, Phnom Penh Municipal Court Judge Sok Sethamony was gunned down by two hit men on a motorcycle. Less than a week later, a Chinese woman was shot and killed in a similar attack. The shootings followed the hit-style killings in February of a senior Funcinpec adviser and a well-known Buddhist monk.
(Additional reporting by Kevin Doyle)
