The chief of a remote village in Mondolkiri province was arrested by local police on Monday after allegedly raping his physically handicapped daughter while his wife and other children were away for the weekend, according to officials.
Calling the attack “abominable,” the chief of police in Koh Nhek district’s Rayar commune, Chhan Sokin, said the man should be immediately removed as chief of his village.
For now, the village chief remains at the provincial police headquarters, insisting that he did not commit the crime, according to district police chief Klot Sokhea, whose subordinates were informed about the case by the alleged victim: the suspect’s 22-year-old daughter.
He said the young woman—who suffers from an atrophied left leg caused by a childhood bout of polio—told police on Sunday evening that she was raped by her father shortly after midnight on Sunday morning while her mother and siblings were staying at the family’s farmstead about 6 km away.
Arrested at his home late Sunday night, the village chief was interrogated at the district police station but denied raping his daughter, Mr. Sokhea said.
Deputy provincial police chief So Sovann said the village chief was transferred to the provincial police headquarters for further questioning on Monday morning, and that he again professed innocence.
“But the daughter told us clearly about the rape,” he said. “I believe that the victim is telling the truth.”
Mr. Sovann said the suspect would be sent to the provincial court to face charges today.
Mr. Sokin, the commune police chief, said he could barely contain his disgust with the village chief.
“A father raping his own child is like an animal,” he said. “A father raping his own daughter is an abominable act that I don’t want to know about, I don’t want to hear about, I don’t want to see and I don’t want to happen in our Khmer society.”
