Court Intrigue

Two years ago, two nephews of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen were accused of involvement in a shootout in a Phnom Penh shopping center. After a brief stretch in jail, the pair was released when a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to support charges that they possessed guns at the scene of the shooting. Last week, another of the Prime Minister's nephews was on trial, this time accused of manslaughter—and again the case appears to be falling apart. According to police, Nhim Sophea, the 22-year-old son of Hun Sen's sister, was partying with friends in late October when the group took off to race around the city in several vehicles. One of the cars crashed into a parked truck, striking two men unloading coconuts. (One died; the other ended up in a coma.) As a crowd gathered at the accident scene, a party goer began firing an AK-47. Two bystanders died in the gunfire.

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Police later arrested Nhim Sophea for "intentional killing." But in court last week, he listened calmly as presiding Judge Tan Senarong adjourned the trial to allow more evidence to be collected. Interviewed after the trial, the judge said the person responsible for the shooting was actually another member of the group, Som Doeun, and that Nhim Sophea merely touched the trigger accidentally in a bid to prevent the slaughter. Whatever happened that night in October, few expect the prosecutors to find additional witnesses to bolster the case against Hun Sen's nephew. Says Sok Sam Oeun, executive director of the nongovernmental legal-aid organization Cambodian Defenders Project: "I don't think they will find enough evidence." The judge says he expects to reopen the trial in two or three weeks.