A woman who allegedly strangled her boyfriend to death while he was sleeping was charged with murder yesterday by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court.

The suspect, 30-year-old Sam Sorphea, was arrested by police on Saturday at her home in Toul Sangke commune of the capital’s Russei Keo district.

Police said she used a piece of nylon rope to strangle her 40-year-old boyfriend, Sok Mao, at a guesthouse. Toul Sangke commune police chief Huy Hean said that Sam Sorphea had lived with her husband in Svay Rieng province and that Sok Mao had been her husband’s friend.

Huy Hean said the pair had agreed to run away together to Phnom Penh and marry.

“She decided to kill her boyfriend when he refused to marry her after she had left her husband to run away with him,” the police chief said.