A law student who filed a complaint with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court against the city’s police and military police chiefs over the fatal shooting of a bystander by authorities during a protest last month took his complaint to the U.N.’s human rights office on Monday.
Law student Neang Sokhun, 25, also said that he would next take his complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague.
Mr. Sokhun, who witnessed the clash in the city’s Meanchey district on November 12, said he sent his complaint to the U.N. to seek justice for slain street food vendor Eng Sokhom and others who were wounded when police opened fire on unarmed civilians.
“The [Phnom Penh Municipal] Court did not take care of my case therefore I decided to send it to the U.N. to find justice for [Cambodian people],” said Mr. Sokhun, who is a member of the opposition CNRP’s youth organization.
“If the U.N. does not handle this case, I will send it to the ICC court to solve this complaint,” he said.
Mr. Sokhun’s complaint states: “I would like to inform the head of the U.N. [that] on 12 November 2013 at about 10:30 a.m., the above perpetrators and their allies shot at youth and workers, resulting [in the] death of one person and injuries to a dozen people.”
“While I myself witnessed the incident and I escaped death, we know that [municipal police chief] Chuon Sovann and [municipal military police chief] Roth Srean were responsible for this incident,” Mr. Sokhun states.
“[I] inform the head of the U.N. [so he can] take legal action.”
The U.N. last night confirmed that it had received Mr. Sokhun’s complaint but declined to comment.
Officials from the National Police and Ministry of Interior could not be reached for comment.
