The appeal case of a soldier convicted in 2013 of strangling his two children to death began yesterday at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court.

Forty-one-year-old Keov Ladang, a former lieutenant-colonel in the army’s engineering unit, is appealing a 20-year sentence for the aggravated intentional homicide in 2012 of his sons Keov Sovannara, 7, and Keov Dara, 3.

Ladang, who attempted suicide after the murder by cutting his wrist with a cleaver, requested the court reduce his sentence because his suicide failed.

“I decided to kill my sons first because I loved them so much, but I did not die,” he said.

Presiding judge Chan Madina, however, questioned this logic.

“If you wanted to take your own life [then] why did you kill your own sons?

“You said that you love your sons; if you think that you love your sons, you should spend the rest of the life in prison,” she continued.

In Kim, Ladang’s attorney, maintained Ladang “had no intention” to murder his children as he was in a suicidal state.

A verdict is expected on November 19.