The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday handed four- to seven-year prison sentences to five defendants, including a 16-year-old boy, for selling and using methamphetamines.
Presiding Judge Theam Chanpiseth sentenced ringleader Nguyen Yangti, 32, to seven years in prison; Kong Pechchanmonireach, 19, Try Mao, 18, and Heng Monireach, 18, to six years; and Pech Kimhour, 16, to four years.
At a January 10 trial, the judge said the five were arrested in August along with eight other people, who were later released, during a raid on an empty lot in Chamkar Mon district’s Phsar Doeum Thkov commune.
Military police seized eight small bags of meth totaling 22.71 grams as well as homemade smoking apparatus, a scale and two swords, he said.
All five defendants admitted to using meth, though they denied dealing.
Kun Sovannarith, a lawyer representing the five, said the teenagers deserved a lesser sentence.
