Two men have been charged with the rape of a 19-year-old woman in Kampong Cham province on Sunday and have been sent to the provincial prison to await their trial, officials said yesterday.

Kampong Cham provincial prosecutor Hout Vuthy said that Phum Virak, 19, and Kong Seaklim, 26, had been arrested in Kampong Cham’s Cheung Prey district on Monday.

District police chief Heng Vuthy said the rape had allegedly occurred in a guesthouse on Sunday, after the suspects forced the victim to drink with them.

“The woman went to join her relative’s wedding party in Kampong Cham’s Cheung Prey district, which the suspects also attended,” he said. “Then the two men invited her to leave the wedding party to eat soup and sing karaoke.”

Heng Vuthy said that the suspects had later allegedly forced the woman to become intoxicated before taking her to a guesthouse and raping her.

“The suspects then took her back to the wedding party and escaped,” he said, adding that  the woman’s family had filed a complaint to police after she told them that the two men had raped her.

Heng Vuthy said there had been three rape cases in Cheung Prey district so far in 2011, higher than in previous years.

“I keep explaining to my people to be careful with their children and don’t allow them to go out at night,” he said.