Leaflets anonymously distributed in front of Battambang City Hall on Saturday alleged that the city’s police chief, Yem Vichet, had taken at least $1,500 in bribes to promote certain underlings and was also collecting several hundred dollars in monthly payments from various illegal gambling outfits.

On the phone yesterday, Vichet denied the allegations, and accused officials within his own force of smearing him. “I reassigned some responsibilities of officials in the unit and [so] they are angry with me.

That’s why they did this,” he said. Licadho provincial monitor Heng Sayhong called upon the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) and National Police to launch an investigation, a proposal that Transparency International director Preap Kol concurred with.

“Anonymous report or information should be considered seriously and treated as a whistleblower,” Kol said in an email.