BOMB PLOTS

Phnom Penh Municipal Court is set to hand down its verdict today in the case against five men arrested in connection with foiled bomb plots in the capital, according to presiding Judge Chhay Kong. “We will announce the verdict against the five Tiger Head Movement’s suspects at 2pm,” he said Tuesday. The defendants – Som Ek, Loeuk Bunhnean, Phy Savoeung, Pov Vannara and Chea Kimyan – are accused of planting explosives outside the Defence Ministry and state television station TV3 in January this year, as well as plotting to blow up the city’s Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship Monument in 2007. Charges relate to delivering, placing, discharging or detonating an explosive or lethal device in a public place, and recruiting and training terrorists for the Khmer National Unity Front, also known as the Tiger Head Movement. If convicted, the men will face between 20 years and life in prison. Som Ek’s defence lawyer Som Sokong, provided by the Cambodian Defenders Project, noted that the verdict will be reached almost a year after the men were arrested. “I will definitely be there to hear it,” he added.