The Pursat Provincial Court over the weekend charged and detained a Chinese doctor who had been on the run for six months after being accused of malpractice when a patient he operated on died, police said yesterday.

Soeng Sopheak, chief of the Provincial Serious Crimes Bureau, said yesterday that he had led a group of Pursat police to Battambang province’s Kamrieng district, where authorities had apprehended suspect Wang Zang Zhok, 51, at the Duong border checkpoint on Saturday morning.

“We cooperated with the Battambang provincial police officials to arrest the doctor successfully, and we took him to the Pursat provincial police station, where he arrived at night,” he said.

Sopheak declined to elaborate on the details of the investigation, or how police had managed to track Wang to Battambang.

“It is our work; I cannot tell you in detail,” Sopheak said.

“The court officials already charged Wang Zang Zhok with the unintentional killing of his patient, Soeng Chan Thoeun, 33, and he was sent for detention in the provincial prison on Sunday,” he said.

Police said that Chan Thoeun had undergone surgery to have a cyst removed from her ovary at a private clinic owned by Wang on January 19.

During the operation, however, she began to bleed profusely, and died in the clinic.

Wang allegedly attempted to shift the blame by immediately taking Chan Thoeun to the provincial hospital, but the victim’s family filed a complaint to the police.

However, Wang allegedly caught wind of the complaint and fled the province.

“At the time, we went down to the clinic after we got the complaint about a woman dying, but the doctor fled.

We shut down the clinic because it did not have a licence or permission letter, and we confiscated the medicine,” Sopheak said.