Multiple suspects for BKK3 blast in custody, but police offer few details

Grenade attack arrests

POLICE have arrested at least five suspects over the past two days in connection to a grenade attack that rattled a Phnom Penh neighbourhood two weeks ago, injuring four people, but officials yesterday remained tight-lipped as to the suspects’ identities and motives.

Sok Khemarin, chief of the Ministry of Interior’s penal police department, said yesterday that authorities had five suspects in custody, but that only three or four of them were likely involved in the crime.

Khemarin’s account of the arrests was corroborated by a Phnom Penh municipal police officer, who was part of the team that made the arrests.

“During the operation [Tuesday] and [yesterday], we arrested five suspects that are involved in the grenade attack on Street 163,” he said on condition of anonymity. “They were sent to the National Police headquarters for questioning.”

Prior to yesterday’s arrests, security personnel professed to having essentially no leads on the September 6 grenade blast in the capital’s Boeung Keng Kang III commune.

Security camera footage of the explosion showed the grenade being dropped from a passing motorbike, then exploding on the driver’s side of a white Lexus SUV as it passed seconds later.

The blast – which injured CONTINUED

– PAGE 4