One month after the first acid attack since Cambodia’s new Acid Law took effect, no suspects have been arrested or charged, authorities said yesterday.

Huy Hean, Phnom Penh’s Tuol Sangke commune police chief, said authorities are still co-investigating with the courts.

“We are looking for the perpetrator and waiting for information from the court as well,” he said, adding that police would not abandon the investigation.

The victim, Rith Savan, 23, was doused with acid by another woman in the capital’s Russei Keo district on January 31, in the first attack after a law to better control access to acid and punish those who use it in attacks was passed last December.  

Rith Savan’s mother, Torn Puth, said she had not received any updates from police.

“I want the police to arrest the suspects as soon as possible to punish them through the law for doing bad things to my daughter,” she said.

The victim was discharged from hospital on Tuesday, after un­dergoing the first of a series of skin grafts for burns.

Almost every part of her body was burned by acid in the attack.

Ziad Samman, project manager at the Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity, said the NGO had been in contact with authorities, who had shown a “quick response” to the case.

“This is the moment everybody is watching to see what happens. How authorities and the court responds to this could be a reflection of what is to come,” he added.

Separately, acid attack victim Kim Leng, 29, said she feared returning home after several months of treatment at CASC, because her attacker was still at large.

She and her 3-year-old son were injured in 2010 when her former fiancé threw acid on her after an argument.

WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CASSANDRA YEAP