Kampong Thom provincial police on Tuesday sent a man to court for killing his mother in Stung Sen district’s O’Kanthor commune.

Chak Chanreth, the provincial police’s serious crime bureau chief, said a 27-year-old man was arrested shortly after beating his 54-year-old mother to death on Monday.

Citing witness accounts, Chanreth said the man fled after beating his mother with a hoe while she was sleeping in a hammock, killing her instantly.

Neighbours reported the incident to police and he was arrested hours later.

He said an examination of the body showed the woman sustained a fractured forehead and skull, and a broken left forearm.

Stung Sen town police chief Nhem Chhun Ly on Tuesday said the man killed his mother after she had scolded him for being unemployed and doing nothing to support the family.

In a separate case in Mondulkiri province, a man was sent to court after being arrested by the Interior Ministry’s penal department in connection with the fatal shooting of a married couple in Koh Nhek district.

Penal department deputy chief Colonel Chiev Vibol said the suspect was arrested in Svay Rieng province’s Bavet commune on Monday.

“My department sent him to Mondulkiri province because he committed an offence there,” he said.

So Sovan, Mondulkiri provincial deputy police chief, confirmed he had received the suspect, a 49-year-old from Koh Nhek district’s Rayum commune.

“We sent him to court after questioning,” he said.

Sovan said the husband and wife, both in their 30s, were farmers. He declined to provide further details, saying only the suspect and the victims were from the same commune.

A district police official who requested anonymity said the murder stemmed from a land dispute.

Mao Phin Phirum, Bavet commune police chief in Svay Rieng province, said the suspect had moved from place to place before finally being arrested at a construction site.