Six Arrested Over Gang Rape, Murder of Woman

Six construction workers were arrested on Wednesday and confessed to the gang rape and murder of a 26-year-old karaoke-parlor worker in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district on Saturday night, police said Thursday.

The naked body of Vong Kunthea, 26, was found on Sunday morning, wrapped in a hammock in an empty lot in Kakab commune.

After three days of investigation, police on Wednesday afternoon arrested six men—Chin Navy, 29; Moeun Khley, 18; Mey Sour, 20; Mom Vannan, 20; Iem Luch, 22; and Nang Navy, 22—at a nearby construction site, according to district police chief Yoeun Sarann.

“The six construction workers gang-raped and murdered her,” Mr. Sarann said.

According to Mr. Sarann, the 29-year-old Mr. Navy met Vong Kunthea on the street, close to the karaoke parlor where she worked near Phnom Penh International Airport.

Mr. Navy then paid her $10 to accompany him back to the construction site, where the two had sex in a temporary shelter, he said.

After the two were finished, the five other suspects raped Vong Kunthea one at a time, Mr. Sarann said. When she started yelling, the group began to beat her, he said.

“They responded by beating her until she lost consciousness and then strangled her to death, according to their confessions,” he said, adding that only the elder Mr. Navy had admitted to killing the woman.

Mr. Sarann said the group beat her to death because she had threatened to call the police.

“They were scared because the victim said she would report the gang rape to the police,” he said, adding that all six men were being held at the district police station and would be sent to court today.

Commune police chief Sann Pet said all of the workers were migrants from outside the capital.

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