Land officials caught in anti-corruption bust

Thursday, 09 August 2012
Meas Sokchea
The Phnom Penh Post

Four officials from the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction accused of land dispute-related corruption were arrested on Monday by the Anti-Corruption Unit.

An official who declined to be named told the Post yesterday that Sa Reth Boramy, deputy general director of General Department of Land Management; Pho Vuthy, director of the Department of Finance; deputy director Tuy Lay Rithy; and chief of the office Meas Ey Sara, were arrested on Monday at the Ministry of Land Management offices as they walked out of a meeting.

“After the meeting finished, all of them were escorted from upstairs through the lift and pushed into a car,” he said.

Ministry spokesman Beng Hong Socheat Khemro said he did not know about the arrests.

ACU spokesman Keo Remy deferred questions to the unit’s president, Om Yentieng, who could not be reached.

The four suspects were still being questioned at Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday, deputy prosecutor Hieng Sopheak said without elaborating.