Traffic police on Saturday released a 39-year-old intoxicated judge from Kratie province after he was arrested in connection with an accident on Friday night in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district.

Heng Chantheary, chief of the Phnom Penh traffic police, said the judge had compensated all the losses and had been released after his family claimed he had medical problems.

“He was released due to his high blood pressure,” Heng Chantheary said yesterday.

Lim Hong, a traffic police officer in Daun Penh district, said the judge had been so intoxicated that he had driven his Toyota Highlander on the wrong side of the road,  ramming into at least five motorbikes and a car.

Luckily, no one had been injured, Lim Hong said.

The judge had attempted to flee, but traffic police had intervened and brought him to a police station, he said.

Once there, the judge had attacked the officer questioning him, Lim Hong said, adding that the judge had hit the officer over the head with a chair.

“Luckily, the officer was wearing a helmet,” he said. “The judge was very intoxicated.”

The judge had been sent to the Phnom Penh Traffic Police Office because he was out of control, he added.