Kandal provincial court charged a man on Monday with the rape of a 15-year-old girl in Kandal Stung district’s Rolaing Ken commune, provincial officials said yesterday.

Eng Hy, provincial deputy military police chief, said that Nou Vichet, 28, was arrested by police for allegedly raping the victim twice and attempting to rape her on two other occasions. “The court decided to charge Nou Vichet for the rape of a minor,” said Eng Hy. “[He is] in prison awaiting trial.”

District military police chief Chun Vanny alleged that Nou Vichet had threatened the girl to keep quiet. “The suspect threatened to kill the victim if she told someone but she could not endure, so she told her sister and her sister filed a complaint to military police,” he claimed.

In a separate case, Kandal provincial court released a 17-year-old male on Monday after he was arrested that day for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl in a banana plantation in Kien Svay district’s Koki Thom commune on Sunday.

Eng Hy said yesterday that he had sent the case to the provincial court, which had released the suspect pending further investigations.

“The prosecutor found that they loved each other, according to the victim’s and the suspect’s answers,” he said.

Eng Hy said that the girl’s uncle had witnessed the alleged rape and complained to military police.