Three high-ranking officials were charged yesterday after turning themselves in over the vicious beating and abduction of a judge, police said.

Kheng Tito, spokesman for the National Military Police, said Chith Kunthol, deputy inspector of the Ministry of Labour; Chhoeng Chanbo, deputy director of the provincial branch of the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction; and another official, whose name has not been released, showed up at National Military Police headquarters in Phnom Penh on Saturday after Prime Minister Hun Sen called for their arrest on Friday.

He said the three officials were part of a group of seven people who beat Judge Meng Tony, 28, the son of a high-ranking government official, in Mondulkiri province on December 4.

Khuth Sopheang, prosecutor of Mondulkiri Provincial Court, said the court had transferred the case to Phnom Penh Municipal Court.

Judge Meng Tony was beaten while he drank with friends at Angkor Forest Restaurant and Guesthouse in Sen Monorom town, Mondulkiri province. He was then abducted, driven 10 kilometres in a car and abandoned at the side of a road.