The Preah Vihear provincial court placed a man in pre-trial detention on Friday. He is accused of shooting his wife dead with a home-made gun in Raksa commune’s Kak Pon village in Rovieng district on April 22, last year.

Chum Kaniya, the spokeswoman for the provincial prosecutor, said on Sunday that the suspect, identified as Srey Don, 37, was arrested by Preah Vihear provincial police last Thursday and sent to court the same day in accordance with a court order.

“The court did not question the suspect because there was already an arrest order. So, after being arrested, he was put in pre-trial detention,” she said.

In hiding

Rovieng deputy district police chief Prum Sitha said his police officers, working in cooperation with Preah Vihear and Kampong Thom provincial police, arrested the suspect in Kampong Thom province’s Sandan district – where he was in hiding.

“We arrested the suspect in accordance with the court order after he had committed the crime and escaped, but the [shooting] was a result of domestic violence. It was not a [premeditated] murder,” he said.

On April 22 last year, in Rovieng district, the suspect became aggressive with his wife Tot Bunthoeun, 35, Sitha said, and subsequently grabbed a home-made gun and shot Bunthoeun in the throat.

After witnessing the shooting, the couple’s daughter hugged her mother and she was also shot in the left arm. Bunthoeun died at the scene and Srey Don escaped to Kampong Thom province.

A Fresh News report said the husband had become angry with his wife for not providing enough money to his brother after they had logged and sold timber together.