A captain in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces was convicted by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday of running an illegal cockfighting ring.

Presiding judge Suos Sam Ath fined 46-year-old Captain Tuy Pha 5 million riel ($1,250) and sentenced him to one year in prison – but suspended all but the roughly three months already served – for operating an illegal cockfighting arena in the capital’s Sen Sok district.

Sen Sok district police chief Mak Hong said yesterday Pha was arrested on January 18.

“He was arrested while police raided his cockfighting arena … and while he was betting on the cockfighting.”

During the raid, he continued, police arrested eight participants – including Pha – and confiscated six fighting cocks, steel spurs worn by the animals to inflict greater damage and other materials related to the activity.

The other seven people arrested were released after they were educated about the illegality of cockfighting and signed a contract promising never to participate in it again.

Pha could not be reached for comment yesterday.