A fourth ex-RCAF officer has been arrested and charged with being part of an alleged kidnapping ring made up of rogue military men, a Ministry of Interior official said Thursday.
Ex-officer Lon Pheng, 39, is being held at Prey Sar prison on kidnapping charges stemming from the abduction last year of the wife of the owner of Phnom Penh’s Tai Seng Hotel, according to the head of the Ministry of Interior’s Information Department.
The arrest comes in the wake of Sunday’s capture of Kim Vanthai, until recently a RCAF brigadier general, accused of leading the gang of ex-officers operating as kidnappers.
Kim Vanthai was arrested in Vietnam and handed over to National Police Commissioner Hok Lundy to face charges stemming from the kidnapping of the hotelier’s wife and the abduction of a Cambodian-American businesswoman last month.
Chhay Sinarith, Information Department director, alleged that Lon Pheng confessed to being involved with Kim Vanthai and others in the kidnapping of the hotel owner’s wife last September and the subsequent extortion of a $1.2 million ransom.
Lon Pheng, who is not facing charges in the abduction of the Cambodian-American woman, confessed that he was paid $240,000 for his role in the woman’s kidnapping, Chhay Sinarith said.
Heav Veasna, director of the Center for Social Development, said that he believed the arrest of Kim Vanthai was the first time that police have arrested a senior military commander for kidnapping.
“The government must show no tolerance to army officials and powerful people involved in the kidnapping act,” Heav Veasna said. “They must do more to arrest all the people involved,” he said.
