More details emerge in capital grenade attack

THE Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday questioned three Vietnamese nationals in connection with the September 6 grenade attack in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Keng Kang III commune, a day after at least five suspects were taken into police custody.

While police and court officials remained tight-lipped as to the possible motive or identities of those questioned, a police officer at the Ministry of Interior said Sok Kimly, a Vietnamese woman who was arrested on Tuesday night, had masterminded the attack, and another man, Pak Map, had been hired to drop the grenade.

The officer, who requested anonymity, said the two were still being interrogated and that Kimly had attempted to take revenge on a lover.

On Wednesday, a Singaporean national had demanded to meet his Vietnamese wife at the Ministry of Interior, only to be sent away by authorities, who said she was involved in plotting the attack. “She [Kimly] had an affair with another man,” the officer said yesterday. “The two had bought a house together as husband and wife, but he wanted to break up, so she hired [people] to kill him.”

The attack injured four people and damaged four cars, with security footage showing a grenade being dropped from a passing motorbike and exploding on the driver’s side of a white Lexus SUV as it passed by.

While between five and seven people were questioned on Wednesday, Sok Khemarin, chief of the Ministry of Interior’s penal police department, said authorities were on the lookout for two additional suspects.

He added that police would divulge more information today, with municipal penal police chief Eng Sophea saying close to 90 percent of the investigation has been completed.