A judge at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday confirmed that he charged a man who threatened over social media to “shoot the head of Sok Touch,” a prominent academic tasked by the government with researching its divisive work demarcating the Vietnamese border.
Investigating Judge Khy Chhay said that on Monday, he had ordered Phong Seiha, 27, to be jailed for making a death threat.
“We already charged him and I decided to detain him yesterday afternoon,” Judge Chhay said. “The suspect is now in pretrial detention at Prey Sar prison.”
On Monday, deputy prosecutor Sieng Sok said he provisionally charged Mr. Seiha with the same crime, for which Mr. Seiha could serve up to two years in jail.
Mr. Seiha, a migrant worker who was arrested in Thailand on Saturday, has said that he regretted posting the threat on Facebook last month and that he “had no intent to do the killing.”
