The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday sentenced, in absentia, a motodop to life imprisonment for the axe murder of a 35-year-old man in the capital’s Por Sen Chey district last year.

Presiding judge Heng Kesaror said that defendant Eang Saroeun, 27, had been found guilty on the charge of intentional premeditated murder under Article 200 of the Penal Code.

“The court is ordering him to pay 20 million riel [about $5,000] in compensation to the victim,” he said.

“The court orders his arrest and that he be brought to jail at Prey Sar prison.”

Recounting the details of the case, Kesaror said that on September 27, 2014, at about 6pm, Saroeun got into an argument with Rotha Sovann, also a motodop, whom he accused of stealing his customers.

Saroeun then grabbed an axe, which was hidden under his motorbike’s seat cushion, and hacked Sovann in the head three times, causing him to die immediately.

Saroeun fled the scene on his motorbike and remains at large.