A Svay Rieng Provincial Court prosecutor said Monday that he was baffled that authorities had yet to apprehend a local police official who remains on the job despite a weeks-old arrest warrant.
Though widely believed to be innocent, Bavet City penal police chief Sar Chantha was convicted in December of illegal weapons possession in connection to a 2012 shooting in which three protesting garment workers were injured.
“I issued the warrant to arrest Sar Chantha to the provincial police and military police on May 11, so I don’t know why they have not arrested him,” prosecutor Hing Bunchea said.
Provincial police chief Koeng Khorn claimed to know nothing about the case. Provincial military police chief Se Vuthy could not be reached, but one of his deputies, Nuth Non, said his boss was not in charge of the case.
Mr. Chantha also could not be reached. Former Bavet City governor Chhouk Bundith was convicted in absentia of firing the shots that injured the workers and handed an 18-month jail sentence. He remains at large.
