The Court of Appeal yesterday heard the case of a hip-hop-loving construction worker who was convicted of attempted murder after taking a cleaver to a DJ-ing co-worker who was playing too much traditional music at a drunken Khmer New Year party in Preah Sihanouk province in 2011.

According to presiding judge Chan Madina, the attacker, Kim Tith, 23, had made repeated requests for hip-hop, only to be ignored by the DJ. 

Enraged, Tith waited for the victim to go home and then attacked, hitting him six times with a cleaver.

Tith received a 10-year jail term and was ordered to pay his victim 10 million riel, a punishment his lawyer, Hok Meng Em, called too harsh.

“My client was only angry with the victim for playing too much Ramvong music; he had no intention to kill him,” she said, arguing for a charge of intentional violence.

Tith’s verdict will be handed down on February 21. 

To contact the reporter on this story: Buth Reaksmey Kongkea at [email protected]