The Court of Appeal postponed a hearing yesterday for former Phnom Penh municipal police chief Heng Pov because his attorney and another person accused in the same case were unable to appear.

Court officials did not give a new date for the hearing.

Pov is appealing a 2009 conviction and 18-year prison sentence for the attempted murder of Thong Uy Pang, who was the owner and publisher of the Koh Santepheap newspaper.

Pov was accused of sending gunmen to ambush Pang, who suffered minor injuries in the attack outside a pagoda in 1998.

Pov told the Post yesterday that he was innocent and blamed the crime on the late commander of the National Police, Hok Lundy.

“I didn’t commit these things as accused,” he said. “I have already told the court that the real people who were involved in the shooting of Thong Uy Pang were Hok Lundy’s people, but they were not investigated.”

The appeal is one of many cases for which Pov has been convicted or is awaiting trial.

He is serving more than 100 years in prison on convictions for multiple crimes, including the assassination of Judge Sok Sethamony.

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