PHNOM PENH: Authorities are currently searching for a man who was caught using a helmet to hit a woman on a motorbike while stopped at a traffic light under the pedestrian bridge in Tuol Kork district on Sunday night, 26 March 2023.
The search comes after a Facebook account, under the name ‘Vanna Photographer’, posted a video on Monday night showing an unidentified man hitting a woman on a bike over her head with a helmet until the helmet breaks. The incident reportedly took place at the Santhormok traffic light under the pedestrian bridge in Tuol Kork district.
Phnom Penh Municipal Police Spokesperson, San Sok Seiha, has confirmed to EAC News that the Deputy Commissioner and Phnom Penh Municipal Police Commissioner, Lt. Gen. Sar Thet, has ordered Tuol Kork district authorities to find this man and bring him in for questioning to proceed with the necessary legal procedures.
Spokesperson San Sok Seiha added that authorities are not yet aware of what the relationship between the two individuals in the video might be, but nonetheless, the public display of violence captured and spreading across social media is very bad.
The videographer who caught this moment of violence on camera, Mr. Vanna, confirmed to EAC News that he saw the man riding in the passenger seat of the motorcycle with the victim, and when they had stopped at a stoplight, the man took off his helmet and began hitting the woman repeatedly. It was at that moment Vanna began recording the incident to share on his account.
"I saw them fighting on the motorcycle, they were driving in front of my car and fighting, but I did not start shooting because I was talking on the phone," said Vanna. "The man then hit the woman with his helmet, they stopped at the traffic light and the man got off the bike and yelled at the woman, so I started filming the incident. Then, when the traffic light turned green, I drove away.”
According to Mr. Vanna, when the man began violently hitting the woman, some tried to intervene and stop him, but he refused to listen. Vanna added that he thinks this sort of violence is unacceptable in society, and he supports the Royal Government’s efforts to eliminate violence against women and promote the advancement of women in Cambodia.
According to Article 217 of the Criminal Code and the law on the amendment of the Criminal Code, violence intentionally inflicted upon others is a punishable offence that can warrant a prison sentence of one to three years, as well as a fine of two to six million riel.
