Five arrested over ‘fraudulent’ land sale on Facebook

PURSAT provincial authorities are pursuing suspects responsible for a Facebook post which illegally advertised the sale of 2,000ha of State land.

Five men involved in the case have been arrested and will be sent to the provincial court on Wednesday. The land is located in Dambong Muoy Roy village of Krakor district’s Tnort Chum commune.

Provincial deputy police chief Mo Leda identified the five as Im Tith, 59; Im Chanthorn, 23; Chhit Virak, 23; Tiv Sochea, 49, and Ou Sary, 48. All of them hail from Kampong Chhnang province.

Leda said the five were arrested as they were connected to the attempted sale of the land, which was transferred from an economic land concession to a social land concession by the government. The plan was to distribute the land to needy soldiers and poor people in the future.

“We know that they [suspects] were selling State land to buyers. This information was obtained by authorities, so they arrested the sellers. In the posting, they have the plan and documents. We seized the documents as they are fake,” Leda said.

He said the five suspects will face charges of fraud and illegal sale of State land by posting a message on Chhit Virak’s Facebook account.

The authorities, he said, had acted in time to prevent anyone from being cheated.

“We are looking for the mastermind behind the sale of the State land. We know that the suspect is living in Kampong Chhnang province after we questioned all five people involved. We are not able to give details about this suspect, as the matter is still under investigation.”

Kampong Chhnang and Pursat provincial Adhoc coordinator Sam Chankea applauded the intervention by Pursat provincial authorities.

Chankea said: “We ask the authorities to enforce the law and bring these scammers or those who secretly sell public land to justice. Otherwise, there will be many victims cheated by those people and endless land disputes.”

Pursat provincial governor Mao Thonin told The Post that the authorities will take action by warning those committing illegal acts.

“If they commit illegal activities, they will be arrested. We must enforce the law without exception,” he said.