Cambodian court sentences Chinese nationals to life in prison for torture and murder of Korean college student

[The Financial News] The perpetrators in the torture and murder case of a Korean college student at a crime compound in Cambodia last year have been sentenced to life in prison, the harshest punishment available under Cambodian law.
According to the court in Kampot Province in southern Cambodia on the 28th local time, the court the previous day sentenced six Chinese men, aged 30 to 54, to life imprisonment on charges of murder, torture and organized fraud. Cambodia does not have the death penalty, making life imprisonment the maximum sentence.
In a statement, the court said, "The autopsy found that the Korean college student Park, in his 20s, died from severe torture, and that there were bruises and wounds all over his body," adding that it recognized the defendants' charges of torturing and killing him.
Park had left for Cambodia in July last year and was found dead in a car near Bokor Mountain in Kampot Province on Aug. 8, about three weeks later. He was reportedly lured to Cambodia after being deceived by a Cambodian voice phishing ring in South Korea, then detained and tortured by a local criminal group before dying.
The killing, along with sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the United Kingdom on Cambodian scam groups, has intensified pressure from the South Korean government and the international community on Cambodia to crack down on crime compounds.
In response, the Cambodian government launched a crackdown in January, arresting Chen Zhi, the head of Prince Holding Group, who was identified as the mastermind, and extraditing him to China. Authorities have indicted 1,458 people linked to scam rings on criminal charges through this month, and have deported 18,864 people from 33 countries who worked for those groups. The National Assembly of Cambodia also enacted a law in March that allows scam ring members to be punished with life imprisonment at the maximum.
whywani@fnnews.com Hong Chaewan Reporter