Police are investigating the mysterious slaying Jan 12 of Khun Srey Mom—the wife of Funcinpec Ministry of Post and Telecommunications Secretary of State Khay Khun Heng—who was shot at the Funcinpec-aligned TV 9 television studio in Phnom Penh.
Khun Srey Mom, 40, who is also a sister of Funcinpec Minister of Cult and Religions Khun Haing, was found dead around 1pm outside TV 9, where she had been shot in the leg and was either thrown or fell from a third floor room.
Khun Haing’s sister owns TV 9, and his wife lived in a large third-floor room at the four-floor apartment block, which houses the station in Tuol Kok district’s Boeng Kak I commune, station staff said.
Details of the incident remained extremely sketchy on Jan 12, but a witness and police officers said Khun Srey Mom was the victim of a robbery and the incident was not connected to politics.
Kuoch Thul, an 18-year-old who claimed he was in the room when Khun Srey Mom was attacked, told reporters that he witnessed a man dressed in black enter the room and shoot the victim.
Kuoch Thul claimed that another woman, whose name he did not reveal, was also in the room when the attacker entered.
Kuoch Thul said that after he was forced to cover Khun Srey Mom’s mouth with adhesive tape, the man in black then shot the gagged woman. He added that he then lost consciousness and woke up on a roof two floors below the room where the incident occurred.
“I know nothing of why I fell down to the first floor,” he claimed.
Adding to the mysterious nature of the killing, commune police post chief Thun Bun said that he was not informed of the killing and he only found out about the incident by chance around an hour after it occurred.
“Nobody called us,” Thun Bun said. “Khun Srey Mom’s body was found on the ground floor after she reportedly fell from the third floor,” he said. “She was shot and she died,” he added.
Deputy Municipal Police Chief Pol Pithey said he visited the crime scene and initial reports indicate that it was not a political crime.
“This is more robbery than anything else. It is not political at all,” he said, adding that police are still investigating.
Neither Khay Khun Heng nor Khun Haing could be reached for comment.
Funcinpec spokesman Nouv Sovathero reiterated that the killing was not political.
