A vigilante mob beat an accused thief to death on a busy thoroughfare in Phnom Penh’s Tuol Kok district Monday evening, police said.
Nou Chien, 18, a 12th-grade student at Tuol Tumpong High School, died after being savagely beaten and kicked in the head by a 40-strong mob, said Prampi Makara District Police Chief Yim Symony Wednesday.
Witnesses told police that Nou Chien snatched a platinum necklace from a woman on Kampuchea Krom Boulevard and then tried to speed off on a motorbike.
He crashed into another bike, and bystanders flocked together and began to beat him.
“Our policemen intervened, but we could not stop them,” Yim Symony said.
No suspects have been arrested in connection with the killing, he said.
Mob beatings are common, with people taking justice into their own hands because they do not believe the legal system can help them.
Most of the killings have involved accused thieves.
Human rights groups have complained that police are complacent in the mob beatings, but authorities say it is difficult to stop the extrajudicial killings because the mob usually outnumbers police officers.
