June 19, 2005
SIEM REAP (AFP) - Cambodian police said Sunday they were holding seven men in custody in connection with last week's deadly school siege in which an armed gang took dozens of children hostage and killed one.
Police revealed they had been detaining a security guard at the Siem Reap school since it was stormed on Thursday, and announced the arrest late Saturday a man who allegedly sold the gang the single firearm used in the attack.
Police had already said they were holding four attackers, including alleged ringleader Chea Sokhom, and a fifth man.
Ou Em, bureau chief of serious crime in northwestern Siem Reap, confirmed that the security guard, Sam Mao, was in police custody.
The suspect caught late Saturday was arrested in the nearby border town of Poipet, close to Thailand, he said.
"One more was arrested last night in Poipet. He is the one who sold Chea Sokhom the gun. We are still looking for one more," he told reporters without elaborating.
Another policeman identified the latest man arrested as Choeut Ny and said he sold the K-54 gun to Chea Sokhom for 150 US dollars after they met at a Buddhist ceremony at their village on Phnom Penh's outskirts.
At least four men burst into a kindergarten classroom at the Siem Reap International School last Thursday, taking about 30 hostages, mostly children aged under seven from at least 14 different countries.
Police and government officials say the men killed two-year-old Canadian Maxim Michalik early on during the siege, intent on showing they were serious about demands for weapons, cash and a getaway vehicle.
Chea Sokhom, 23, told police the attackers were going to murder the children of a South Korean businessman who had slapped him while he was working for the man as a driver, but they could find the children.
The men panicked when security forces descended on the school and eventually tried to escape with several children bundled into the van provided by police.
However they were overpowered and badly beaten by a crowd of irate onlookers outside the school.
Besides ringleader Chea Sokhom, the other alleged attackers were Thim Chem, 20, Vanti Sopheak, 22, and Sin Tha, 22.
They were taken to the provincial hospital on Sunday to be examined by doctors and later returned to the police station.
The fifth man to be arrested has been identified as Ol Samnang.
Court officials were questioning the men and expecting to charge them at the police station rather than in court for security reasons related to the case's high profile, police said on Saturday.