Hun Sinath has filed an Interior Ministry complaint against a popular Facebook commentator who accused her of interfering in a sportscaster’s domestic abuse and divorce case.
The case against social media presenter Pheng Vannak began when Choeun Bun Chork, a football pundit, posted a photo of himself with Sinath, who is the sister of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Bun Chork had been going through divorce proceedings, and his estranged wife, Tring Phalla, was accusing him of beating her.
Seeing the photo of Bun Chork and Sinath, Vannak, an ex-soldier and founder of Pheng Vannak News, posted video commentary on social media that Bun Chork had gone to meet the prime minister’s sister over his domestic troubles in order to show that he had high connections and for protection. According to Vannak, Bun Chork’s wife Phalla had already posted a photo of herself with Hun Sen.
Sinath took exception to the insinuation that she was interfering in the domestic dispute, and posted a more than hour-long video response on Thursday.
In it, she defended the innocence of her meeting with Bun Chork; accused his wife Phalla of fabricating domestic abuse allegations against him and dredging up old incidents; and claimed that Vannak had previously received protection from Justice Ministry undersecretary of state Kim Santepheap and ruling party lawmaker Lork Kheng.
“I would like to ask nephew Pheng Vannak, why do you come to bite me and ask about taking a picture with Chork and accuse me of protecting [him],” Sinath says in her video. She says Bun Chork had simply come along with another guest when she made noodles, and he had made donations only for a Buddhist cause and to her orphanage.
She adds that abuse allegations against Bun Chork were untrue or from 2017.
“Ms. Tring Phalla exaggerated and fabricated accusations against Chork, and Tring Phalla asked samdech techo [Hun Sen] to help, and I want to ask that with a population of nearly 20 million why is everything up to him?” Sinath continues, asking Bun Chork’s wife if she knows about the Justice Ministry, which can handle domestic abuse cases.
“A woman today is not normal. Have you seen Chork’s pictures of Tring Phalla stabbing all over the place? … Tring Phalla came to destroy [his] place. Consider this, nephew Pheng Vannak.”
Sinath then questions Vannak’s comments that people should allow the law to take its own course without intervention from powerful people. According to Sinath, Vannak himself had appealed to officials when he was facing arrest.
“You relied on begging to [National Assembly lawmaker] Lork Kheng and [Justice Ministry undersecretary of state] Kim Santepheap,” Sinath says in her video. “You said allow the law to handle itself. Then you must go to prison … and should not ask Kim Santepheap to come and lobby Lork Kheng.”
“Last night you went live and said my name and you damaged my honor seriously, and I will send my lawyer to file a complaint against you over the insulting and incitement and discrimination.”
Sinath’s lawyer Kea Eav said the complaint had already been submitted on Friday to the Interior Ministry “to take action.”
The Justice Ministry’s Santepheap hung up when reached on Friday. Ministry spokesman Chin Malin directed questions to Santepheap. Vannak hung up without picking up his phone. Sinath has previously waded into social media flare-ups involving an online cosmetics seller and questioned a police summons against a Battambang man who complained online about the demolition of a local road.
