Cambodian tycoon gets light jail sentence for attack on female TV star

Cambodian tycoon gets light jail sentence for attack on female TV star

Sok Bun’s savage beating of presenter known as Sasa caused outrage after video of assault was posted online

Sasa shows injuries to her legs. Photograph: Heng Sinith/AP

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School of Vice: Well, after all the moral outrage and media fuss, not least the public condemnation from the country's PM himself in the wake of this brutal assault captured on a live CCTV camera and posted on Facebook, this is what a Cambodian woman - even one as well-connected as Ms Sasa's family - can expect to get for her trouble! Unless, there's a back-handed compensation arrangement somewhere between the victim and perpetrator, this case can only serve to highlight the gross deficiency underlining the entire Cambodian justice system. It has always been the case that the rich and powerful always get away with most crimes, including murder. Even so, this sordid verdict from the country's kangaroo court does not make the 'reality' any the easier to accept morally or as human beings. Not only does the 'resolution' fail to address the nature of the offence in question; it is a slap in the face for all women who had ever fallen victims to such heinous attack, and who will - thanks to this miscarriage of justice - likely continue to do so without serious punitive consequences to the perpetrators.  Indeed, prior to the incident, the tycoon himself would have known of the impunity and the escape routes on offer for men such as him, living and committing the violence in a country such as Cambodia where domestic violence against women and minors is pervasive and is considered - largely - an act of corrective discipline and a private affair outside the remit and jurisdiction of the courts and state, even though the assault took place at a public venue. 

On balance, it is not the serious and shocking nature of the physical assault suffered by the victim herself that leaves the worst and most indelible scar in the human conscience, but rather the stain that such miscarriage of justice is allowed to be part of mankind's legacy in this day and age.  

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A Cambodian property tycoon whose savage beating of a female TV presenter was captured on video will be a free man in four months, a court has ruled.

The Phnom Penh municipal court judge Sor Lina sentenced Sok Bun to three years in prison but suspended all but 10 months. After counting time already served he is left with four months of prison time.

The video taken at a Phnom Penh nightclub last July showed Sok repeatedly punching and kicking Ek Socheatha in the head for about a minute as his bodyguard pointed a gun at her. Ek said she had been trying to stop Sok taking advantage of her friend who was too intoxicated to defend herself.

“My client said she wanted the case to end at this time, so she will not appeal the verdict,” said Ek’s lawyer, Puth Theavy. “She is accepting the verdict and said it is fair for her.”

Ek, popularly known as Sasa, last month withdrew the most severe complaint of attempted murder. The Phnom Penh Post and Cambodia Daily newspapers reported that she accepted out-of-court brokered compensation from Sok, although she would not confirm this.

The case was well-known largely because the video was widely shared online, and because Cambodia’s richest and better-connected people often escape justice.

Even the prime minister, Hun Sen, weighed in on the case last year, criticising Sok before he turned himself in. “Don’t think that because you have money you can escape,” he said. “What you have done is intolerable.”