An opposition party member in Kompong Chhnang province’s Samakki Meanchey is on the run after allegedly beating his wife for voting for the CPP, the victim and local officials said Monday.
Oun Voeun, 55, punched his 35-year-old wife, Doung Chanthy, in the face several times and then kicked her in the stomach at their home on August 23, said district governor Chan Voeun, adding that the suspect fled the area after the incident.
“I received information from neighbors who said that Mr. [Oun] Voeun was angry and punched his wife several times on the left eye and kicked her when she was down, cursing her after she said she didn’t want him to become a district leader” for the opposition, Chan Voeun said, adding that Oun Voeun was drunk at the time and that Ms. Chanthy is recovering from her injuries in the hospital.
“The victim was sent to the provincial hospital for medical treatment because her left eye was severely injured,” he said.
Speaking from her bed at the provincial hospital on Monday, Ms. Chanthy said her husband’s attack was brutal.
“My husband beat me because I did not vote CNRP. I cannot see out of my injured eye,” she said, adding that she filed a complaint with the commune authorities and would apply for a divorce.
Chan Voeun said the incident was not reported until now because Ms. Chanthy was only transferred to the provincial hospital on Saturday after the sight in her left eye did not return.
“She was first sent to a district referral hospital, but now she was sent to the provincial hospital,” he said.
According to commune police chief Chhim Sam Ath, a day after the incident, on August 24, Oun Voeun physically cut his home in two and sold half of the wood, leaving his wife with the remaining section of the property.
But police stopped the truck transporting the wood from the house after Ms. Chanthy filed a complaint accusing her husband of violence.
“We stopped the truck, but the offender escaped,” he said. “We have built a report of violence and my [officers] are now looking for the offender to bring him to justice in accordance with the law,” he said.
