‘Sorcerer’ slain:

Kampong Speu provincial court yesterday charged two young men with the murder of a man they alleged to be a “sorcerer” in the province’s Kong Pisei district, following their arrest on Saturday.

Din Tharith, chief of the provincial military police’s serious crime office, said that Than Rotha, 18, and Pon Pech, 19, were charged with the murder of 73-year-old Sin Khoeun after their arrest in Teuk La’ak commune’s Kantuoth village a few hours after the alleged crime.

“They were angry with this old victim. They thought that he was a sorcerer who had performed sorcery on their parents and caused them to become ill,” he said. “So they prepared a plot to kill him while he was riding a bicycle alone in the evening.”

Sorn Sak, deputy chief of the serious crime office, said  Sin Khoeun’s neck had been cut with a hooked knife and his body was found about a  kilometre from his house.

“[Sin Khoeun] rode the bicycle from the pagoda towards his house. The suspects had [allegedly] hidden near the trail, and they started to kill him when he arrived at a quiet place,” he said.