POLICE in Banteay Meanchey province on Thursday arrested a monk suspected of murdering an abbot from the Yaram Rainsy pagoda in Mangkol Borei district.

Sing Vuon, 38, died on Sunday after he was apparently strangled with a yellow towel and hit in the temple with a blunt object, police said.

Banteay Meanchey provincial police Chief Hun Hean said the suspect had been defrocked and was being held at the station for further interrogation. “We have not charged him with the killing yet,” he said. “We arrested him following the testimony of three monks from the pagoda.”

Deputy provincial military police chief Or Borin said police were looking into the possibility that the case was a revenge killing.