A close aide of imprisoned Khmer Rouge commander Chhouk Rin has been arrested for allegedly killing three people between 1996 and 2000 in revenge for the killing of his father, police in Kampot province said Wednesday.
Long Rin, a Khmer Rouge soldier under Chhouk Rin who allegedly helped hide his former commander while authorities were seeking to arrest him in recent months, was detained by police on Sunday, said Kampot deputy judicial police Chief Sao Sam Oeun.
Police suspect Long Rin, an RCAF soldier in Kep municipality, of killing the two women in 1996 because he suspected they were responsible for hiring a man, Hean Khet, to kill his father in 1996.
Long Rin is also suspected of then killing Hean Khet in 2000, Sao Sam Oeun said.
The 35-year-old suspect was sent to Kampot prison after he being arrested in Kampot’s Phnom Voar area, he said.
“We arrested Long Rin because he was suspected of killing three people in the past,” he said, saying the arrest was not related to his relationship with Chhouk Rin, who recently was sent to Prey Sar prison.
Sao Sam Oeun said Long Rin admitted he killed Hean Khet because he thought the 28-year-old from Kampong Trach district had killed his father. The two sisters may have been motivated to hire a killer to seek revenge on Long Rin’s father, as their mother died mysteriously after she got into a land dispute with his father in the 1980s, he said.
“This was a complicated story,” he added.
