The exact whereabouts of Heng Pov remained a mystery on Friday with government officials claiming he was still in Singapore but rumors placing the fugitive former Phnom Penh police chief as far away as Paris and at Singapore’s international airport boarding a plane with agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
Interior Ministry Penal Police Chief Mok Chito said the government has not been informed of a departure by Heng Pov from Singapore and police there have guaranteed to keep Phnom Penh informed of Heng Pov’s movements.
“There are lots of rumors including someone who saw him eating noodles at a restaurant in Paris,” Mok Chito said.
“There is no news about his departure. Singapore [police] and Interpol are looking out for him. If the DEA or UN [High Commissioner for Refugees] accepts him, they will immediately inform us,” he said.
“Singaporean police are very strict in their job,” he added.
CPP lawmaker Cheam Yeap said on Friday that any country considering Heng Pov’s request this week for asylum should understand that he is a common criminal with serious charges lodged against him in Cambodia’s courts.
“Accepting [Heng Pov] is the right of an individual country, but they should think about the interest of the country that he originally came from,” Cheam Yeap said. “It would not be good for the one who opens an entrance for the criminal.”
He said that diplomatic relations with the country that accepts Heng Pov might suffer.
National Military Police Commander Sao Sokha, who had alleged been marked for assassination by Heng Pov, declined to comment on the case but likened the former municipal police chief to a “dead crocodile.”
An arrest warrant was issued for Heng Pov late last month for the assassination of a judge and the attempted assassination of three others.
