‘Sorcerer’ murdered after deal goes awry

Police in Kampong Chhnang’s Teuk Phos district are hunting for a man who allegedly killed his uncle, a suspected sorcerer.

Khem Vibol, the district police chief, said that on Thursday evening 22-year-old Duong Reach brutally murdered 49-year-old Khlem Thon, his uncle through marriage, with a scythe.

“The suspect has been on the run, and we are hunting him down,” Vibol said. According to Vibol, Reach had made a deal with Thon’s son to exchange a homemade tractor for one of their cows.

But when Thon saw the pair closing the deal, he ordered his son not to make the exchange. Angered, the suspect killed him with a scythe, Vibol said.

Villagers accused Thon of using sorcery to make people ill, but Vibol said police found no evidence to support this.

Last month, a suspected sorcerer in Takeo province was beaten and stoned to death by a mob.