Kandal provincial police are searching for an officer after a warrant was issued by the court for his arrest on charges of assault stemming from an incident in Roka Khpos commune’s Koh Kor village of Takhmao town on July 30 last year.

Provincial deputy police chief Lak Mengthy told The Post on December 29 that authorities had not yet located Sreng Sokha, a 40-year-old officer from Prek Ambel commune’s Troeuy Troeng village of Sa’ang district.

According to the warrant, Sokha was sentenced to one year and six months in prison for violently assaulting someone in a dispute over real estate in Koh Kor village on July 30 last year.

Rights group Adhoc’s spokesman Soeung Sen Karuna said on December 29 that this was a case of an official breaking the law when he is supposed to be the one enforcing it and that made it an aggravated act carried out against an ordinary citizen.

“Legal action should be taken to confirm that our country’s law enforcement does not play favourites and will punish lawbreakers no matter what rank or position they hold,” he said.