The Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday sentenced three men, including two ex-members of the Cambodian security forces, to 17 years in prison for the robbery and murder of a 36-year-old woman in Kandal province’s Ang Snuol district last year.

Judge Heng Kesaror said former National Military Police officer Suon Moeun, 31, ex-military officer Bou Sam Nang, 28, and fellow defendant Ven Chantha, 34, were guilty of aggravated theft resulting in the victim’s death and unauthorised use of a weapon.

“The court sentences them to 17 years each in prison and ordered them to jointly pay 50 million riel [about $12,500] in compensation,” Kesaror read in his verdict. They can appeal within 30 days, he added.

Major Mean Samnang, chief of Ang Snuol District Police, said that the trio had been arrested by provincial penal police on May 12, 2013.

“They were arrested after they robbed a woman’s luxury motorbike while she was driving it alone in Ang Snuol commune’s Boeng Romeas village, and then shot her dead on May 12, 2013, at about nine in the morning,” he said.

“After their arrests, police seized two pistols and two motorbikes, including the stolen motorbike, from them,” he added, noting that the stolen moto was handed over to the victim’s family.

Defendant Sam Nang said yesterday that the prison sentence and compensation were unfair, and vowed to appeal for a lesser sentence.