A man suspected of stabbing two Canadian tourists during a robbery at a Sihanoukville guest house was arrested Sunday and charged Tuesday, officials said.
Pok Ra, 32, of Kompong Speu province, was charged with robbery in Sihanoukville Municipal Court for the Aug 11 incident, acting Chief Prosecutor Meas Sopheak said Tuesday. He was arrested at 4:30 pm Sunday while driving his motorbike in Mittapheap district, said Sihanoukville penal police officer Kol Phaly.
In one of several recent crimes against tourists, Pok Ra is accused of having broken into the room at the Ocean View guest house in Sihanoukville’s Occheuteal beach where a Canadian woman, 25, and a Canadian man, 24, were staying, police said.
Imprisoned for burglary in 2002, Pok Ra “stabbed [the tourists] because they tried to capture him,” Kol Phaly said. The male victim was stabbed on his right torso, right hand and left forearm, and the female on her right breast, hand and back, police said. The pair were admitted Aug 11 to Calmette Hospital in Phnom Penh and flown to Bangkok for treatment later that same day.
Police confiscated from Pok Ra about $12.50, a knife and a pair of shoes stolen during the robbery, Kol Phaly said.
An Ocean View guest, Phnom Penh resident Rogier Mansvelt said that he had left a pair of cloth shoes outside his door the night of the robbery. When a televised news program broadcasting the arrest showed Pok Ra, Mansvelt was surprised by the suspect’s footwear. “The shoes were definitely mine,” he said Tuesday.
