Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
Phnom Penh Post
Kidnappers freed the son of a three-star general yesterday in what his father claimed was a case of mistaken identity that led the assailants to drop a US$500,000 ransom demand.
So Akno, the son of Lieutenant General So Phan, the deputy director of the general commissariat of the National Police, was kidnapped on October 8 by a group of armed men who police said then demanded $1 million ransom for his release.
But So Phan said that, having already halved their demand, the kidnappers released his son yesterday at 2am without extorting a cent from him.
“I am very happy, as my son has been released from a group of kidnappers, and he was not tortured or injured. I did not pay any money to the kidnappers,” he said, adding he would not pursue the perpetrators through the courts or police. He denied rumours he had paid US$500,000 to secure his son’s release.
But a police official from the Ministry of Interior, who asked to remain anonymous, claimed the reduced ransom had been paid by So Phan to free his son.
“We now are working hard to arrest these kidnappers to bring them to justice,” he said, adding that the group had been sighted bundling So Akno into a Lexus when they originally kidnapped him from his house in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district.
Touch Naruth, chief of Phnom Penh Municipal Police; Ya Kim Y, chief of Phnom Penh Municipal Military Police; Mok Chito, chief of the Ministry of Interior’s Criminal Police Department; and Khieu Sopheak, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Kidnappers freed the son of a three-star general yesterday in what his father claimed was a case of mistaken identity that led the assailants to drop a US$500,000 ransom demand.
So Akno, the son of Lieutenant General So Phan, the deputy director of the general commissariat of the National Police, was kidnapped on October 8 by a group of armed men who police said then demanded $1 million ransom for his release.
But So Phan said that, having already halved their demand, the kidnappers released his son yesterday at 2am without extorting a cent from him.
“I am very happy, as my son has been released from a group of kidnappers, and he was not tortured or injured. I did not pay any money to the kidnappers,” he said, adding he would not pursue the perpetrators through the courts or police. He denied rumours he had paid US$500,000 to secure his son’s release.
But a police official from the Ministry of Interior, who asked to remain anonymous, claimed the reduced ransom had been paid by So Phan to free his son.
“We now are working hard to arrest these kidnappers to bring them to justice,” he said, adding that the group had been sighted bundling So Akno into a Lexus when they originally kidnapped him from his house in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district.
Touch Naruth, chief of Phnom Penh Municipal Police; Ya Kim Y, chief of Phnom Penh Municipal Military Police; Mok Chito, chief of the Ministry of Interior’s Criminal Police Department; and Khieu Sopheak, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
5 comments:
thank god he is safe. this to show you how dangerous cambodia street.
this is the Cambodia People Money this Asshole took. These gang should form a group kidnapping only the uneducated so call general so they can take that money and give it back to the poor.
the ROBIN HOOD gangs.
26 October 2011 12:51 AM
They went to house and took him. If it happened in the house, it could happen anywhere. Certainly, Cambodia has been one of the most dangerous place to vacation or business investors, whether you aware of the situation or not,that's the fact.
Kidnapping the son of a 3 star general in the Police department?
Wow, either these kidnappers are stupidly brave or they have some very powerful backers!
Ordinary crooks would not be crazy enough to pull such move.
9:17 AM, the kidnapped was probably masterminded by powerful people, probably buy people who worked in the police. Since UNTAC, kidnapping and robbery were often committed by plice or soldiers with powerful people backing them or masterminding them. I think it is a case of a peal si peal (evil eats evil).
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