Police in Kratie province arrested two Vietnamese nationals caught logging illegally inside the Snuol Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area on Wednesday, though a third man who was with them escaped.
Snuol district police chief Chan Sokkim said yesterday that his officers found the group in the process of cutting down a first-grade Sokrom tree and captured two of the three men along with three motorbikes, two chainsaws and an AK-47.
“We arrested two people only and another escaped into the forest,” he said.
“We sent the two Vietnamese people to the provincial court today.”
Provincial court deputy prosecutor Thuch Panhchak Santepheap said the two suspects had not yet been questioned because they did not speak Khmer and the court’s translator was away.
“We have not yet charged the pair because the court did not have a translator for questioning.
The pair is being detained at the provincial police station and we will bring them back for questioning tomorrow,” he said.
The prosecutor said the men could be charged with illegal logging and weapons possession.
