The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday delayed trying a woman accused of killing her 2 year-old adopted daughter until Aug 8, but heard preliminary statements for the trial from several witnesses who testified that the mother beat the child on many occasions.
The case stems from a December 2001 incident involving Kea Soly, a moneylender who is accused of beating her adopted daughter Kea Solydey to death.
“I loved my baby very much and I would never do anything to hurt her,” Kea Soly said outside the court on Tuesday. “If the girl was five years old or eight years old I might have beat the child if it did not listen, but [Kea Solydey] was only two, so I would never beat her.”
In a brief statement to the court, Kea Soly said her daughter fell from a second-story balcony.
However, an autopsy released in December from Kantha Bopha I hospital, where the toddler was taken after she allegedly fell from the balcony, showed she had sustained at least two skull fractures, most likely caused by long-term abuse.
Bou Kim Yoeun, who served as
