1 hour, 53 minutes ago
PHNOM PENH (AFP) - A fourth former Khmer Rouge soldier has been
arrested and charged for his role in the 1996 kidnapping and killing
of British mine clearer Christopher Howes, a court official said
Wednesday.
Former Khmer Rouge fighter Sin Dorn was charged Tuesday with
premeditated murder over the deaths of Howes and his Cambodian
translator, investigating judge Ke Sakhan told AFP.
Sin Dorn was also charged with illegal confinement of Howes and his
translator and with being a member of rebel forces, he said.
Authorities arrested Sin Dorn on Friday in the remote northern outpost
of Anlong Veng, the Khmer Rouge's final stronghold, he said.
"He has been placed in jail" pending trial, Ke Sakhan added.
In November, three other former communist rebels, including Khem Ngun,
Loch Mao, and Cheap Chet, were arrested and received the same charges
over the deaths of Howes and his translator, Huon Huot.
They left the Khmer Rouge after the movement disintegrated in 1998.
Khem Ngun, who served under the notorious Khmer Rouge commander Ta
Mok, had joined the government and was awarded the rank of major
general in the Cambodian military. The others became civil servants.
All four men face life in prison if convicted, but no trial date has
been set.
Khem Ngun allegedly ordered rebels under his control to shoot Howes
and Huon Huot, a few days after they were seized near the famed Angkor
Wat temples in northwest Cambodia.
At the time the communist Khmer Rouge was battling government troops
in the final years of Cambodia's drawn-out civil war.
Howes, who was 37 at the time, was given the chance to leave his
kidnapped team of 20 mine clearers from the Britain-based Mines
Advisory Group to retrieve a ransom, but refused.
While the team was eventually released, Howes and Huon Huot were taken
deeper into rebel-held territory and killed. His remains were found in
1998.
Families of the victims filed complaints in provincial court, but long
delays forced the transfer of the cases to Phnom Penh.
Cambodia is littered with millions of landmines and other unexploded
ordnance from nearly three decades of conflict which ended in 1998.
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