A commune police chief in Oddar Meanchey province’s Anlong Veng district was charged yesterday with the rape of a 16-year-old girl, officials said.

Kouy Kanya, a prosecutor at Oddar Meanchey Provincial Court, said that the suspect, Phnom Tbal commune police chief Leng Saran, who works near the border with Thailand, has already been sent to pretrial detention.

“The court decided to charge him with raping the 16-year-old girl,” he said.

Leak Sokha, deputy police chief of Oddar Meanchey district, said provincial police and Anlong Veng district police went to arrest the suspect on Monday – two days after the alleged incident – following a complaint from the girl and her family.

The victim says that Saran hired her and two friends to work on Saturday at a plantation he owns.

After the work was finished, the suspect allegedly arrested her and brought her back to the police station, where eight other police officials were present. She says that everyone was drinking wine and that Saran took her outside and raped her, then detained her overnight. The next day, she and her mother filed the complaint.

“On that day, there were eight police officials there who drank wine with him and knew that he attempted to rape me but they did not help me,” she said. “He is a police official, but he is cruel and he is very bad.”

Saran allegedly warned her and others present to not tell anyone or he would kill them.

“The police chief raped her and held her in custody one day, after not allowing her to go home,” said Leak Sokha, deputy police chief of Oddar Meanchey district.

The victim is also seeking $10,000 in compensation.

Srey Naran, a coordinator for rights group Adhoc, said the suspect “deserves prison”.

“He is a police official, the person who knows the law, but he breaks the law.”

Neither Saran nor his lawyer could be reached.