Cambodia – An unnamed woman, an acquaintance of her victim Rith Savan, attacked the 24-year old factory worker in her home in the Tuol Sangke commune, in Phnom Penh Russei Keo at 8 p. m. on February 2, 2012, in the first acid attack crime to occur since Cambodia passed a law went into effect on December 21, 2011 which gives harsher penalties for this crime. Almost every part of the victim’s body was burned by acid: her face, chest, stomach and legs
The assailant had entered the victim’s room while she was
alone, carrying a bowl of acid hidden in a black plastic bag, called her name
and targeted her face as she turned to look at the intruder. The acid dripped
onto other parts of her body.
Almost every part of the victim’s body was burned by acid:
her face, chest, stomach and legs.
Police were unsure of the motive for the attack because the
victim was now unable to see and speak because of her burns.
The victim’s mother, Torn Puth, reported that her “daughter
and the suspect know each other, but they were not close friends,” Torn Puth
explained. “One day, I received the phone call from the suspect, who I just
know by the name ‘Kha.’ The suspect asked her to take her daughter “back home
because she had fallen in love with her husband. Then she hung up the phone.”
She told the daughter Rith about the phone call and Rith called back and told
the suspects sister, who answered the phone that the accusation was untrue and
said that spreading such a lie could get the woman jailed.
The new law imposes harsh sentences for acid attacks,
including up to 20 years in prison for “torture and cruel acts” using acid and
up to five years in prison for “intentional violence” using acid. According to
a charity which collects statistics on the crime the, the number of acid
attacks fell from 19 in 2010 to 10 last year, four of which occurred in Phnom
Penh.
[Information source: Mom Kunthear & Mary Kozlovski, “Cruel attack on woman first under new acid law,” The
Phnom Penh Post (Cambodia), Feb 2, 2012]
[523-11/21/21]
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