Fourth arrest in Howes murder case
There's been another development in the Christopher Howes murder case today with the news that a 4th former Khmer Rouge soldier, Sin Dorn, was arrested Friday in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Anlong Veng in northern Cambodia and is being held in Phnom Penh pending a trial date, which has still to be fixed. The charges against Sin Dorn, 52, are premeditated murder of Howes (pictured above) and his Cambodian translator Houn Hourth as well as illegal confinement of both men and with being a member of rebel forces. The British de-miner from Bristol and his colleague were abducted and killed a few days later in March 1996. In a surprise development in November last year, three other former communist rebels, mastermind Khem Nguon, Loch Mao, and Chep Cheat, were arrested and charged over the kidnapping and murder of Howes and Hourth. Khem Nguon, who served as number 2 to the notorious one-legged KR commander Ta Mok, had defected from the KR to join the Cambodian armed forces where he was awarded the rank of brigadier-general in the defence ministry. The others became civil servants. All four men face 20 years in prison for premeditated murder and 10 years for illegal confinement if convicted. Families of the victims filed the original complaints in the Siem Reap provincial court, but long delays forced the transfer of the cases to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court and we now await the start of the trial. For more on Christopher Howes, please visit my website here.
posted by Andy Brouwer at
5:33 PM
1 Comments:
Some additional news on 10 May from The Cambodia Daily:
The investigating magistrate in Phnom Penh, Judge Ke Sakhorn has now stated that six arrests have been made in the case. The 4 that have received the main publicity but also two others under the names Horm Hai and Cheas Chon. However it looks like they got the wrong man in Cheas Chon and he has now been released. The authorities are still looking for a man named Chon. Horn Hai has also claimed mistaken identity but the Judge says that he has no proof so he will remain in custody pending a trial in the case.
The case continues to trundle along without any trial date set as far as I can make out. Nevertheless the arrests were something I never really expected to happen, so that in itself has been an enormously positive step in the right direction in resolving the Howes murder. At the time of the initial arrests it was stated that further men were being sought and now they have been arrested. So far so good. The prosecution have had more than a decade to put their case together - let's hope its water-tight and that the perpetrators are found guilty. This is one case where the Cambodian authorities can achieve a positive outcome and send a message to all that justice can be found in Cambodia. I live in hope.
Post a Comment
<< Home