The Kandal Provincial Court detained three suspects on Saturday for forging paperwork and using fake Bodyguard Unit documents.
In a separate case, the Kampong Thom Provincial Court detained a suspect for impersonating a police lieutenant general.
Kandal Provincial Court spokesman Sou Sarin said on Sunday that all three suspects in the Kandal case are men, identified as Nhem Phoeun, 36, Chan Phaneak, 28 and Phat Sovan, 31.
“The judge charged the three suspects with forging public documents and using fake documents in public,” Sarin said.
Kandal provincial police chief Chhoeun Sochet confirmed that the suspects were detained for forgery.
CPC News quoted Lak Mengthy, the head of the provincial police’s minor crime bureau, as saying that police detained the suspects because Phaneak, a former Bodyguard Unit official [he stopped working there in 2014] took a job as a driver for a Chinese national in Preah Sihanouk province.
The Chinese national wanted a driver who had served the government to help him forge identities and documents.
The suspects asked Phoeun, a Bodyguard Unit official, for his pistol license, mission letters and Bodyguard Unit ID to scan them and falsify them with Phaneak’s name.
Mengthy said in the CPC report that Phaneak had prepared similar documents for Duok Mab, a current prisoner in Preah Sihanouk prison.
Some of the suspect’s associates, who had been paid between $160 and $220 each, escaped.
Sovan, who scanned and tampered with the documents, received between 300,000 ($73) and 700,000 riel for his work.
Mengthy said in the CPC report: “When Chan Phaneak was detained, Nhem Phoeun and Phat Sovan admitted that they tampered with the documents for other people to receive money from them.”
In a separate case, the Kampong Thom Provincial Court detained Heng Ken Nady, 42, for impersonating a lieutenant general.
He had resided in Daun Penh district’s Srah Chak commune in Phnom Penh and was arrested on Friday in Achar Leak commune’s Prey Sralet village in Stung Sen town.
Kampong Thom provincial prosecutor Sin Virak said on Sunday that the court charged him with using a uniform similar to the police or the military.
Kampong Thom provincial police chief Ouk Kosal said on Sunday that Ken Nady had previously worked at the Anti-Drug Department. He had impersonated a lieutenant general after leaving Prey Sar prison.
“We seized some exhibits such as a set of police uniforms with the stripes of a lieutenant general, 589 ceremonial $100 banknotes and some other personal materials.
“He has not yet cheated other people. He has just told them that he is an official – he is enticing them to be cheated. But his attempt to cheat failed when we arrested him,” Kosal said.
