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Cambodia nabs five for planting bomb outside Naga casino

Concerns raised by a leader who believes the hand grenade was planted to scare striking workers
Former employees of NagaWorld casino and rights group representatives prepare to release balloons to mark International Women's Day and to demand the release of jailed trade unionists in front of Prey Sar prison in Phnom Penh on March 8

Former employees of NagaWorld casino and rights group representatives prepare to release balloons to mark International Women's Day and to demand the release of jailed trade unionists in front of Prey Sar prison in Phnom Penh on March 8. (Photo: AFP)

Published: December 16, 2022 10:33 AM GMT
Updated: December 16, 2022 10:33 AM GMT

Four Chinese and one Cambodian were arrested after a hand grenade exploded outside the NagaWorld casino where hundreds of striking workers have held persistent demonstrations for more than a year.

No one was hurt in the explosion, which sources close to the government and local media said was caused by a hand grenade that had been hidden in a cake and wired to a detonator and then placed on the roadside in front of the casino on Dec 15.

It was moved to safer ground on a median strip by a street cleaner who notified authorities. A zone was enforced and the grenade detonated about two hours later.

“I told myself, maybe this is a bomb. I took my cart and walked away with weak knees,” the street cleaner, Pov Savy, told Voice of Democracy.

General Chhay Kim Khoeun, deputy chief of the national police, told the semi-official Fresh News that the five were arrested on Dec. 16 on suspicion “of involvement in a bomb case in front of NagaWorld”.

He named them as Yang Jiakang (male, aged 26), Tu Lina (female, aged 23), Yang Yudong (male, aged 25), Chen Di (male, aged 29), and a Cambodian, Suong Srey Oun (female, aged 36).

“Currently, the suspects have been sent to the Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Interior for further legal action,” he said.

Authorities and reports said a luxury Range Rover had been caught on CCTV with its occupants planting the bomb on the roadside. They stressed it was probably linked to gambling as opposed to terrorism.

However, concerns were expressed for the safety of striking workers by Chhim Sokhon, vice president of the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld (LRSU), who said she believed the grenade was planted to scare striking workers.

“The explosives were about threatening lives and I was shocked to see a bomb near the strike site. It was a very threatening intention,” she told Camboja News.

“Before there were guns. Now there is a bomb,” she said, referring to a cache of guns that were discovered close by in November.

Striking workers are demanding the reinstatement of their colleagues who were sacked last year.

NagaWorld, owned by Malaysian billionaire Chen Lip Keong, has said the layoffs were necessary after losses were incurred through the economic downturn, accompanying the Covid-19 pandemic.

Heavy-handed tactics have also been deployed, including the recent detention of LRSU president Chhim Sithar at Phnom Penh airport on Nov. 26 upon her return from a trade union conference in Melbourne.

The United States has urged Cambodian authorities to release her and “all detained trade unionists exercising their rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly.”

Australian ambassador to Cambodia Pablo Kang has also said that he was “concerned” to hear of Chhim Sithar’s detention, adding he raised “the questionable basis of her arrest” with Cambodian Justice Minister Koeut Rith.

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