After serving only four months of a one-year sentence for slapping the son of logging tycoon Try Pheap, Duong Udomchorvin took to Facebook on Tuesday to apologize for his crime and thank Prime Minister Hun Sen for improving the country’s courts and prisons.
Mr. Udomchorvin, 27, himself the son of a wealthy businessman, was arrested on April 13 for slapping Try Duluch, 21, multiple times and threatening to shoot him inside the RSD Tattoo parlor in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district.
On August 11, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court found him guilty of intentional violence and sentenced him to one year in prison, but only required him to serve four months. A Prey Sar prison official, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said Mr. Udomchorvin was released about a week ago.
In the video, Mr. Udomchorvin sits at a desk in front of a picture of his father, Duong Ngieb, and Mr. Hun Sen and says he regrets slapping Mr. Duluch.
“I really regret my actions and could not control my feelings, which created problems that have caused difficulties to my family and seriously affected my personal honor,” he says.
He also thanks Mr. Hun Sen and his wife, Bun Rany, for providing water to Prey Sar in her capacity as the head of the Cambodian Red Cross.
“I would like to thank Samdech [Mr. Hun Sen], who has strengthened the judicial system and fairness in Cambodia, which has helped people [and] prisoners in the whole country and also me to get justice from the court.”
