Three people were arrested and sent to the Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court in connection to an alleged abduction, extortion and eventual murder of a Chinese national.
Provincial court spokesperson Ly Chandara told VOD on Friday that three Chinese nationals were arrested by military police after a body was found in Preah Sihanouk’s Prey Nob district late last month.
“The case has just reached the judge,” he said.
The national military police posted on its Facebook page that on Thursday it closed a two-province investigation into a case that stirred rumors on Chinese social media.
The post said it arrested three people: Zang Yanming, 43, male, Sang Chuan Gang, 38, male, and Liang Jing Jing, 39, female. Yanming was identified as an owner of Ta Soeng Sanjong company and the other two were employees, but the company could not be found on Commerce Ministry records.
The suspects were sent to court on charges of collusion to commit premeditated murder, illegal weapons possession, extortion with aggravated assault and concealment of clues.
According to the post, a 26-year-old Chinese woman filed a complaint on October 27 after her husband, also a Chinese national, went missing after visiting a villa in Buon commune’s Village 5 the night before.
Police arrested two people, including Liang, at the villa “immediately” after receiving the complaint, and after questioning they intercepted Zang as he was on his way to Phnom Penh International Airport.
Zang reportedly confessed that he invited the deceased, named in the post as Nan Xing, to their house for a meal and then held him in a room and demanded money — $100,000 paid through the cryptocurrency USDT and $70,000 through the local financial institution Huione Bank.
Authorities then found the victim’s body on the afternoon of October 28 in Prey Nob’s Ou Tasek village.
Takeo provincial military police arrested the third suspect, Sang, in Kirivong district’s Prey Tamao village and then transferred to Preah Sihanouk authorities.
Police then raided Ta Soeng Sanjong company’s office in Buon commune’s Village 5, confiscating two shotguns, 69 bullets and $101,500, which was transferred to the victim’s family, according to the post. Police then released five witnesses who were held for questioning on Thursday, according to the post.
