The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday charged a fifth bodyguard employed by fugitive Defense Ministry official Thong Sarath with helping to carry out the murder of tycoon Ung Meng Chue last year, a police official said on Thursday.
Ung Meng Chue, chairman of the Shimmex Group, was gunned down outside a fruit store in Phnom Penh’s Chamkar Mon district on November 22.
The municipal court charged four of Major General Sarath’s bodyguards with carrying out the hit and charged the general, who remains at large, with ordering it.
Deputy municipal police chief Chuon Narin said a fifth bodyguard, Chhun Chetra, was arrested by officials from the Interior Ministry’s internal security department on Wednesday and charged by Investigating Judge Ly Sokleng later that day.
Mr. Narin said Mr. Chetra, who has been placed in provisional detention at Prey Sar prison, stands accused of lending his Honda motorbike to the alleged shooter, Sieng Veasna, but that he did not know the name of the official charge.
Judge Sokleng could not be reached.
