Stung Treng provincial court questioned two NGO workers and one reporter yesterday in connection with an incident on Friday night in which the trio allegedly chased down and blocked a police car that was transporting a suspect in a drug case.

Hor Vuthy, chief of the minor crimes office for the Stung Treng provincial police commissioner’s office, said yesterday that he had sent the three suspects to court yesterday under allegations of preventing civil servants from performing their duties.

He said the three suspects followed the car, which was transporting a female suspected of distributing drugs, in Stung Treng town’s Samaki commune for several kilometres before blocking it.

The three suspects are Ham Darayi, president of the Cambodian Watchdog Organisation in Stung Treng, Loep Ith, an officer for CWO, and Touch Hoeurn, a reporter for the League of Cambodian Journalists from Mondulkiri province.

“They mistakenly believed that the car was transporting wood,” Hor Vuthy said. “Their chasing of wood-transporting cars is for nothing but extorting money... but accidentally, it was a police car.”