The Battambang Provincial Court on Tuesday placed a man in pre-trial detention after he was accused of killing a fellow bee-hunter in Peam Ek commune, Ek Phnom district, Battambang.

Battambang provincial police sent him to the court on Monday after he was detained on Saturday for killing his friend while looking for bees in the forest last Wednesday.

“The man was charged with murder under Article 199 of the Criminal Code and sent to prison,” said Battambang provincial deputy police chief Chet Vanny.

He said on Tuesday that the accused Soeb Sokha, 40, faces up to 15 years in jail if found guilty.

Vanny said Sokha and the victim, Phin Bun Thoeun, 34, both lived in the commune.

“The authorities sent the accused to the provincial court to continue legal procedures because he had already confessed to the murder,” he said.

The authorities arrested Sokha after Bun Thoeun’s family filed a complaint with the Peam Ek commune police office saying the suspect came back from the bee trip alone and told them that he (Bun Thoeun) had gotten lost, said Vanny.

Vanny told The Post that according to the accused’s confession, both men, who were friends, went hunting for bees in the forest to collect honey. When they arrived in the forest and did not find any, they sat down to drink alcohol.

While drinking, they had an argument, and the suspect took a wooden stick and beat the suspect to death. He took the body into the thick forest and returned home alone, according to Vanny.

He said according to Sokha, when he arrived home, Bun Thoeun’s wife asked about her husband because they went hunting bees together. But Sokha told her that they took different paths and got lost. He didn’t know where Bun Thoeun was, so he went back home alone.

The authorities investigated until Saturday and detained the suspect who then confessed to the killing.