An artist was sentenced to 13 years in prison by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday for the murder of a woman in Sen Sok district last year.

The court found Dang Sopheak, also known as Thim, guilty of killing 24-year-old internet shop owner Lim Chhunkim with a knife. Sopheak allegedly stabbed her multiple times in the abdomen and cut her throat, leaving her body crumpled in a pool of blood inside her shop’s bathroom.

Sopheak also has to pay 200 million riel (about $50,000) to the victim’s family.

Throughout the case, the artist insisted that he did not know the victim or have any conflict with her. He said that Chhunkim died at the hands of four young men who were gaming inside her shop at the time of the murder.

“I did not kill the victim,” he said outside the courtroom yesterday, adding that he plans to file an appeal shortly.

Lim Chea Tong, the victim’s father, was also disappointed with the sentence, finding it insufficient.

He also plans to appeal the decision, to try to bump up the punishment to a life sentence.

“I cannot accept it,” he said yesterday.