Two nephews of Prime Minister Hun Sen, detained in connection with a recent shootout, were released Wednesday in time to attend their cousin’s wedding.
Cousins Hun Chea and Hun To, both 24, were released from Prey Sar Prison on their parents’ guarantee that they will not leave the country, said David Chanaiwa, Hun Chea’s lawyer.
Their parents asked Phnom Penh Municipal Court for the releases two days ago so the men could attend the wedding of Hun Manit, 21, Hun Sen’s son, and Hok Chindavy, 18, daughter of National Police Director-General Hok Lundy. The wedding began Wednesday and continues through Friday.
Both Hun Chea and Hun To have been charged with illegal use of a weapon and destruction of property for their participation in a Dec 16 shootout that left two men wounded.
According to police, the cousins were sitting in the Parkway beer garden when a Cambodian-Australian man accused them of forcing the man’s sister-in-law to sit with them. The cousins claim the sister sat with them voluntarily. Shots were fired. Kheang Leang, a friend of the Cambodian-Australian, and Thon Sakhon, Hun To’s bodyguard, were each shot in the leg. The two wounded men were also charged in the shooting. Khean Leang remains at large, while Thon Sakhon is in municipal jail. The Cambodian-Australian man was deported following the shooting.
The cousins planned to attend the wedding either later Wednesday or today, their lawyers said. Before going to the wedding, they planned to stop at a pagoda to be blessed and sprinkled with water by monks—a purification ritual to rid their bodies of the bad luck they absorbed from being in prison.