A former student who was jailed last week after joking on Facebook that he would bomb his graduation ceremony has posted a letter to his Facebook page pleading for mercy from Interior Minister Sar Kheng, who presided over the event.
Tao Savoeun, 26, was charged with making death threats after complaining online about repeated reschedulings of his university graduation ceremony in Siem Reap City.
“Wait until Samdech [Mr. Kheng] comes, and get together to place a bomb to kill everyone at once,” he wrote in a comment on a friend’s Facebook page.
However, in a handwritten letter dated Sunday and posted prominently on his own page, Mr. Savoeun thanked Mr. Kheng for attending the ceremony and apologized for his previous comment.
“I would like to express my thanks to Samdech, who sacrificed his time and gave high honor to participate in presiding over [the ceremony] despite the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology announcing that on that day, there would be strong rain and a storm.
Samdech still struggled to come to encourage all students,” he wrote.
“Therefore, please, Samdech, forgive me.” Mr. Savoeun added that he made his original comment due to his “lack of thinking and bad temper” and never had any intention of bombing the ceremony.
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry could not be reached for comment.
