Professor beaten by mob in Phnom Penh after alleged hit-and-run

Khouth Sophak Chakrya and Mech Dara | Publication date 12 March 2018 | 13:51 ICT

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An angry mob threw rocks and bricks at a motorist who was allegedly involved in a hit and run in Phnom Penh's Russey Keo district yesterday. Fresh News

A university professor accused of a hit-and-run has been transported to Vietnam with serious head injuries after he was brutally beaten by a mob in Phnom Penh late Sunday afternoon.

A video of the attack shows a group of men swarming the professor's car and throwing large rocks through his window in Tuol Kork district around 5:30pm. The driver, identified by police as Suy Sareth, 52, is pictured bashed and bloody as he is loaded into an ambulance.

Sareth, an English professor at the University of Cambodia, sustained serious head injuries after he was mobbed, said Sem Sokunthea, deputy director of Phnom Penh traffic police.

“He was very badly injured by the mob near Preah Kossamak Hospital and right now he was sent to get treatment in Vietnam,” Sokunthea said. “Now, the criminal police are searching to find and arrest the group of people who beat him.”

Authorities said Sareth was accused of knocking a motorist from a motorbike near Wat Tuol Santevoan. Witnesses began chasing after Sareth’s car when it failed to stop at the site, but Sareth eventually was brought to a halt near Preah Kossamak Hospital in Tuol Kork and cornered by outraged residents.The victim of the hit and run has yet to be identified.

The video also shows people kicking Sareth’s car, beating his head with motorbike helmets, and slamming his fingers in the car door.

Teuk La’ak II commune police chief Ton Ravy said Sareth’s car was stopped due to a mechanical failure, but Sokunthea and witnesses say he collided with another car.

“After the beating, we rushed to help him,” Ravy said. “We are investigating and cannot reveal the perpetrators yet.”

A doctor at Hong Hak clinic, where Sareth was first taken, said Sareth was in a “very serious condition, because people used rocks to hit him in the face”.

The doctor, who declined to give his name, said Sareth was transported from his clinic to Calmette Hospital before his family decided to take him to Vietnam.