Military police have arrested three men suspected of killing Sok Sethamony, the municipal court judge who was gunned down in an assassination-style attack in April, a police official said Wednesday.
Mol Meat, 41, was arrested in Prey Veng province in the early hours of Sunday morning, and Chhun Chetra, 36, and Chhum Chaly, known as Ratana, 26, were arrested at a guest house in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district, said the official, who declined to be named.
Authorities suspect the men of involvement in the US-based Cambodian Freedom Fighters, a group sworn to the armed overthrow of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government.
“One of the suspected men is [CFF leader] Chhun Yasith’s cousin. He was a terrorist leader who was seeking to buy grenades and weapons,” the official said. “Although they have not confessed, we suspect they are members of the CFF,” he added.
The three suspects remained in military police custody after a hearing at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday. Judge Kim Soaphorn is expected to issue a warrant for the suspects’ continued detention, the official said.
Kim Soaphorn could not be contacted Wednesday, but Municipal Court Judges Sok Roeun, So Dara and Tan Senarong said they were aware that suspects in the judge’s shooting had been in court.
Sok Sethamony, 42, had presided over some of Cambodia’s most high-profile cases in recent years, such as the trial of former Khmer Rouge commander Sam Bith and the trials of suspected members of the CFF rebel group.
The CFF is held responsible for a Nov 24, 2000, attack on two government buildings in Phnom Penh. Several rebels were killed and 11 police officers wounded during the fighting.
Witnesses to Sok Sethamony’s shooting reported that only two men were involved in the killing. Riding a motorcycle, the assailants pulled alongside the judge’s vehicle and shot him four times while he was stopped at the corner of Sihanouk Boulevard and Street 63.
