A Cambodian man is in pre-trial detention in Thailand after allegedly killing a fellow-Cambodian sugarcane plantation worker with a machete in Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province on Saturday, a Cambodian-Thai border communication police chief said on Tuesday.
Chhun Lorn, the head of the border checkpoint at Phnom Dey in Battambang province’s Sampov Loun district, told The Post that a Cambodian worker was being temporarily detained by Sa Kaeo provincial court in Thailand after Sa Kaeo and Prachinburi provincial police arrested him following the incident in Vang Yin commune.
Lorn said a report from the Thai side named the suspect, who was delivered to the Sa Kaeo court on Monday, as Chan, 29, from Santepheap village in Battambang province’s Sampov Loun district. He had started work on December 21 having crossed the border at Phnom Dey.
The victim, Hou Sam, 23, was also from Battambang province.
Lorn said the report alleged that the suspect attacked Sam with a machete while the victim was drinking coffee in front of the workers’ office, slashing his neck and killing him almost immediately.
Chan then allegedly fled to another province, but police from Sa Kaeo and Prachinburi provinces arrested him. He was interrogated in Sa Kaeo province.
Quoting from the report, Lorn said: “[Chan] was angry with the victim for always discrediting him in front of a woman he loved. In addition, the victim also wooed and began dating the woman himself.”
Lorn said that after interrogation, the suspect was sent to Sa Kaeo province where the court detained him on a charge of “premeditated murder”.
He said Thai authorities are preparing documents to allow the victim’s body to be returned to his family.