Cambodian police are investigating the killing on Monday night of the owner of Palm Resort restaurant and hotel in Kandal province’s Kien Svay district, police and hotel employees said Tuesday.
Tom Vay, deputy Kandal police chief, said 49-year-old Alan Romagnoli, a French national, was killed with a meat cleaver.
“The victim was chopped four different places in the face, in the neck and his jaw. This is a case of assassination,” he said.
Romagnoli’s body was found in his bedroom at the resort by staff at around 11 am on Tuesday, a waiter who identified himself as Vy said by phone.
When guests at the resort started to order breakfast and Romagnoli had not yet appeared, staff at the resort tried to contact him.
The employees called Romagnoli’s mobile phone but decided to break in the door after twenty unanswered calls, Vy said, adding that the victim was found with a pillow covering his face.
Romagnoli’s body was later taken to the morgue at Calmette Hospital by representatives from the French Embassy, Vy said.
According to Tom Vay, only two Cambodian security guards working at the resort and the 20-year-old son of one of Romagnoli’s friends were present at the resort at the time he was killed.
“We are investigating this. It may involve the victim’s friend’s son because the Palm Resort had no other guests last night,” Tom Vay said Tuesday.
Tom Vay also added that the man—who is also a French national—was handed over by Cambodian police to the French Embassy.
An old friend of Romagnoli—who did not want to be named—said Romagnoli bought the Palm Resort one year ago. The friend also said that Romagnoli did not have any family.
French police based inside the embassy are working together with local authorities on the case, he said.
An official at the French Embassy declined comment.
(Additional reporting by Lasse Karner)
