A Russian expatriate accused of shooting a man during a fight between two groups of foreigners at a Sihanoukville casino in February was charged with intentional violence Tuesday and sent to prison to await trial, officials said.
“We had issued a warrant to detain him, and he was charged with intentional violence with aggravating circumstances for using a gun to shoot other people,” Presiding Judge Ly Sophaneth said, declining to discuss the case further.
After months on the run, Roman Dragomir, 39, was arrested on Monday evening as he sat down to eat at the Five Men Fresh Beer Restaurant in Sihanoukville’s Bei commune. He spent the night in police custody before being sent to the court Tuesday morning, according to police.
Mr. Dragomir is at least the fourth man to be arrested over the February 13 brawl at the Queenco Hotel & Casino, which police say started when a group of Eastern European men attempted to extort the Moldovan owner of a company handling ticket sales for the Kazantip music festival, which was ultimately canceled by authorities. A second Moldovan national was stabbed in the torso and another man shot in the knee.
Mr. Dragomir’s arrest on Monday follows that of his countryman Andrei Tcekhanskii, 36, in late March, who was captured only after leading more than 20 police officers on an hourlong motorbike chase through Sihanoukville. Two other Russians were apprehended the morning after the Queenco clash at a rented villa in the seaside city, where police confiscated Tasers, knives, steel pipes and air-powered pistols.
Police and witnesses have linked both Mr. Tcekhanskii and Mr. Dragomir to Oleg Tikhanov, a Russian who is wanted in his home country for possession of weapons and explosives as part of a crime syndicate.
Cambodian authorities say Mr. Tikhanov, who runs a hotel, bar and kindergarten in Sihanoukville, ordered the attack that led to the fight at the casino. He remains at large.
Multiple foreign business owners in Sihanoukville have also said that Mr. Dragomir worked for the family of local Russian businessman Nikolai Doroshenko.
Contacted Tuesday, Mr. Doroshenko’s son, Ostap Doroshenko—a police officer in the Interior Ministry’s personnel department—said Mr. Dragomir had been living in Sihanoukville with his wife and children for a long time, but had never been employed by him or his father.
“He never working with my family,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Ben Woods)
