Bribery query

A corruption trial against Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cousin Dy Proem, who is alleged to have paid a US$200,000 bribe to sway favour in a land dispute, began yesterday.

Presiding Judge Duch Kimsorn said yesterday that only new evidence would be examined in the court’s retrial of Dy Proem, who allegedly bribed an official to issue a fake March 18 Council of Ministers

statement awarding disputed land to him in Dangkor district’s Kakab Commune.

“This is the second time the court has conducted the trial for Mr Seng Yean and Dy Proem over the allegation of corruption,” he said.

Seng Yean, former deputy general director of the Inspection Department at the Ministry of National Assembly, Senate Relations and Inspection, is the man who allegedly received the bribe.

The charges followed a complaint from Phnom Penh landowner Houth Sarom, who claims that, unlike 120 other families, she never sold her land to Dy Proem.

Long Narin, lawyer for the Ministry of National Assembly, Senate Relation and Inspection, said there is documented proof the pair are guilty.

Neither of the accused could be reached for comment yesterday.