Defamation

Thirty-two-year-old Nou Srin of Chong Kao Suo village in Siem Reap province was arrested on Friday after drunkenly cursing provincial Governor Suo Phirin in a public place.

Provincial police said Nou Srin drank four bottles of an unidentified alcoholic beverage and became angry at the governor because he did not receive a plot of land that he said was promised to him.

“We sent him to court, and the prosecutor is working on his [defamation] case,” said Suot Nady, Siem Reap provincial police chief, yesterday.

Sours Narin, a provincial coordinator for the rights group Adhoc, said yesterday that he suspected the man suffered from mental illness.

Suot Nady questioned that allegation. “If he is mentally ill, how could he curse the governor,” he said, adding that there was no merit to the man’s claims that Sou Phirin had made any promises of land.

Siem Reap provincial prosecutor Ti Sovinthal said yesterday that this is not the first time that Nou Srin has cursed someone.

“I have accepted complaints and I have accused him of cursing others,” he said, adding that in those cases the suspect was not detained.