The Siem Reap Provincial Court handed down a six-month suspended jail sentence to a deputy governor of Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district for adultery after he was accused by his wife of having consensual sexual intercourse with another woman.

Provincial court spokesman Yin Srang said on February 2 that Heak Chan Leang was arrested by the provincial Military Police’s Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Unit on January 30 while he was with the unidentified 25-year-old woman at a home in Kruos village of Siem Reap town’s Svay Dangkum commune.

The arrest resulted from of an official complaint made by Chan Leang’s wife.

Srang said the Military Police sent Chan Leang to court on February 1 after questioning.

A prosecutor then charged him with adultery – an offence punishable by a prison sentence of up to one year and a fine of up to 1,000,000 riel ($250) – under articles 7 and 10 of the Law on Monogamy after determining that his marriage had not been officially dissolved by any court.

The case was heard and decided on the same day he was charged.

“After questioning him at the hearing, later in the evening that same day Judge Chhe Vireak sentenced Chan Leang to six months in prison with the entire term suspended,” Srang said.

After announcing his verdict, Judge Vireak ordered the Military Police to release Chan Leang immediately.

The woman whom Chan Leang allegedly had an affair with is a resident of Phnom Penh. She was only detained briefly for questioning and then released without charges.

According to a provincial Military Police officer who asked not to be named, Chan Leang told the judge that he and his wife had applied for a divorce at the court quite some time ago – with a claim that they had never slept together as grounds for the dissolution of their marriage – but the court had yet to issue a decision on the matter.

Chan Leang could not be reached for comment.