Police arrested a fellow officer in the capital yesterday after he allegedly punched a security guard in the head, then brandished a gun, threatening to kill the guard over a perceived slight concerning the officer’s wife, Phnom Penh Military Police Deputy Commander Pou Dary said yesterday.

According to Dary, on the night in question, third lieutenant Long Sang, 29 – a police officer in the Ministry of Interior’s bodyguard department – went with his wife to a wedding at the Chhouk Tip Hotel and Guesthouse in Tuol Kork district, where victim So Sopheak, 28, worked as a security guard.

Dary said Sang’s wife decided to book a room at the hotel rather than try to get her intoxicated husband home, and went inside without telling him.

“He was angry with the victim, who said that his wife had gone into the hotel,” he said, speculating that Sang had mistaken Sopheak’s statement of fact for an allusion to a sexual indiscretion.

“We will decide what action we will take against him after receiving the victim’s complaint or the intervention from his unit,” he added.

Sang and his wife could not be reached for comment.  

Prime Minister Hun Sen said in September that powerful officials and their friends and families must be punished if they wielded weapons or fired guns in public. Such incidents, however, have continued. 

 

To contact the reporter on this story: Buth Reaksmey Kongkea at [email protected]