Vietnamese shot in calf as six illegal fishermen held in P Veng province

PREY Veng provincial police were continuing to question five of six Vietnamese nationals on Sunday after they were detained in a crackdown on Friday in which police fired nearly 30 bullets to halt an illegal fishing operation on the Mekong River.

T h e i n c i d e n t , w h i c h occurred in Peam Chor district’s Svay Phlos commune, saw one suspect hit in the calf b y a bu l l e t t h a t p ol i c e s a y r e b o u n d e d o f f t h e riverbank.

Prey Veng provincial Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Department director Ouk Samnang told The Post on Sunday that his authority was questioning five suspects at Prey Veng provincial police headquarters regarding the alleged illegal fishing activity.

He said a si xth suspect was receiv ing medical treatment at t he pr ov i nc i a l r ef er r a l hospita l.

Sa mnang sa id he did not know when the police would send t he s u spec t s to t he prov incia l court.

On Friday night, he said, a provincial joint task force was conducting a crackdown on illegal fishing in a protected area. He said that during the operation, the police fired 27 bullets, injuring one of the six suspects in the calf.

Samnang said Prey Veng deputy provincial police chief Keo Rethmony led the operation in collaboration with Svay Phlos commune police.

“My task force did not participate in t he actua l operat ion. But t he suspect s a re being detained at Prey Veng prov incia l police headquarters and my team of experts a nd pol ice a re quest ion i ng them,” Samnang said.

He said the six suspects were aboard three fishing boats when the police asked them to stop so they could question them, but the suspects refused and instead tried to steer their boats into the police boats, Samnang said.

The police, who were on two motorboats, fired at the suspects before they were able to intercept the illegal fishing boats and detain the six suspects, he said.

Neit her Prey Veng prov incia l pol ice chief Pr um Sa nthor nor Rethmony, who led t he op e r a t i on, c ou ld b e re ache d for c om ment on Sunday.

However, in an interview with Fresh News, Ret hmony said the injured suspect was a 34-year-old Vietnamese male from Kampong Chamlong village in Kandal province’s Loeuk Dek district.

He confirmed that the suspect’s lower right leg was injured and he was sent to Prey Veng Referral Hospital.

“When the fishing boats saw the police were after them, they tried to escape by smashing into the police boats.

“When the police saw that, they fired bullets upwards into the mud, but one bullet rebounded and hit a suspect in the right calf, injuring him,” Rethmony told Fresh News.

He said that in 2017, one of his officers was killed during a crackdown on illegal fishing. It followed villagers filing a lawsuit requesting intervention from deputy task force chief Pich Chivoan to crack down on people who were using prohibited fishing equipment in Prey Veng province’s Peam Chor district, he said.