Four people were sent to the Banteay Meanchey Provincial Court yesterday on suspicions that they worked together to kill a taxi driver on Saturday over a purported love triangle.

Deputy Prosecutor Sok Keobandit said the four suspects had arrived at the court but were still being interrogated. Provincial Police Chief Ath Khaem confirmed that the four had been sent to court but declined to comment further.

One police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the murder was believed to have been premeditated, and that three other suspects were still at large.

The official said that the suspects – identified as alleged instigator Heng Khieng, 23, and purported accomplices Nuon Meta, also known as Mao, 21; Chav Sovan, also known as Kan, 30; and Phan Chav, 21 – were suspected to have beaten the victim, Chea Roth Thol, 28, to death in Sisophon town.

They then used his taxi to take the body for cremation at a local pagoda, saying he was a relative that died of cancer, he said.

Khieng admitted to police that he had been planning the murder for two weeks, the official said, and that the driver had harassed him because of his relationship with the man’s estranged wife.