A police officer was tried yesterday at Phnom Penh Municipal Court for allegedly selling methamphetamines in the capital’s Prek Thmey commune, in Chbar Ampov district.

Tork Chanthy, 30, a police officer working with the special intervention unit at the Ministry of Interior, was arrested on February 11 and later charged with drug trafficking under Article 40 of Cambodia’s Anti-drug Law, judge Ros Piseth told the court.

“He was arrested after he had sold drugs to drug users in a tree farm in Prek Thmey commune,” he said.

“Police seized three packages of methamphetamine powder weighing 1.2 grams, scales for weighing drugs, a pistol, a motorbike, and other drug-related material.”

Chanthy denied the charges but admitted he was a drug user, saying the drugs found on him had been purchased for his personal use. The court should drop the charges and let him go free, he added.

“I was not a drug seller, I was only a drug user. I have bought these drugs for my own use only,” he told the court.

The verdict is due on the morning of December 28.