The suspects are believed to have killed Heng Seavly because she planned to inform police of their crimes.
By RFA Khmer2025.03.03
Am Sam Ath, director of general affairs for the Cambodian Human Rights Organization, speaks with reporters, in an undated photo. (រូបភាពពីពល/LICADO)
Cambodian authorities have arrested two Chinese nationals for allegedly killing an 18-year-old Cambodian woman they believe intended to leak information about the online scam center where they were holding her, according to police officials.
The Criminal Investigation Department announced at a press briefing on Monday that officers had arrested 30-year-old Chen Cong — the boyfriend of victim Heng Seavly — and Li Haohao, 34, in the capital Phnom Penh a day earlier.
It said the two suspects “confessed” to the murder and claimed to have acted on the orders of another Chinese, 26-year-old Yang Kaixin, who remains at large.
The two men said they killed Heng Seavly, who was being forced to work as a scammer for their operation, because she had “learned many secrets” about the group and posed a threat to its members, according to department officials.
After receiving a complaint, police discovered Heng Seavly’s heavily bruised and naked body buried in a shallow grave in the sand near a lake in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district on Saturday.
Heng Seavly’s mother told reporters earlier that day that she had been unable to contact her daughter since Feb. 27, after Heng Seavly sent her US$50.
Originally from Kampot province’s Kampong Trach district, Heng Seavly’s mother said the young woman traveled to Preah Sihanouk province for work but relocated to Phnom Penh in mid-February after she “followed a group of Chinese online workers” to the capital.
Attempts by RFA Khmer to contact National Police spokesman Chhay Kimkhoeun for further information about the case went unanswered Monday, as did calls to Heng Seavly’s mother.
Calls for killers to face justice
Heng Seavly’s killing prompted condemnation from the Cambodian Human Rights Organization, or Licadho, whose director of general affairs, Am Sam Ath, called it a “cruel and inhumane act,” and demanded that the perpetrators be “severely punished” by the court system.
Am Sam Ath suggested that Heng Seavly’s killers “had a clear and premeditated plan” to murder her.
“[The perpetrators of] this case should be severely punished ... [and] the law must be strictly and severely enforced, with no leniency or exemption,” he said.
In addition to the murder, Am Sam Ath said, authorities should launch an investigation into any other crimes the perpetrators may have committed, because they likely killed Heng Seavly “to silence her” and suppress evidence against them.
Scam centers that have flourished in different parts of Southeast Asia for several years, despite efforts by authorities to eradicate them.
The scamming, known as “pig butchering” in China, involves making contact with unsuspecting people online, building a relationship with them and then defrauding them. Researchers say billions of dollars have been stolen this way from victims around the world.
Huge fraud operation complexes are often staffed by people lured by false job advertisements and forced to work, sometimes under threat of violence, rescued workers and rights groups say.
China, home to many of the victims of the scams, has worked to spur authorities in its southern neighbors to take action against the criminal enterprises.
Researchers have said governments and businesses across the region have been enabling the operations by failing to take action against the profitable flows they generate.
Translated by Sum Sok Ry. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
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