Tycoon Charged Over Taped Attack On TV Star

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen joined the calls for Bun to hand himself in to police, describing the attack as “intolerable”.

The Cambodia Daily on Saturday quoted the Ministry of Interior’s penal police department director Sok Khemarin as saying that Bun was arrested at Phnom Penh global Airport after flying back in from Singapore, where he had claimed he needed medical treatment.

CCTV footage of the assault on Ek Socheata, better known by her stage name SaSa, in a restaurant has fuelled public outrage in a country where the rich are often seen to be beyond the reach of a corrupt judicial system. He was then driven to a prison on the capital’s outskirts, said Sok Khemrin.

On Saturday Ek Socheata said she was happy Sok Bun would now face the law. The attack occurred at a Japanese restaurant in Phnom Penh and was captured by the restaurant’s security cameras – and then obtained by Sasa, who posted the video online.

“Don’t think that because you have money you can escape, ” Hun Sen said.

A waiter can also be seen trying to intervene, but Bun’s bodyguard draws a gun during the altercation, which took place on July 2, and prompted the victim to file an attempted murder complaint with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court.

Horrific CCTV footage of the beating has now been shared on social media thousands of times after the actress uploaded it to her Facebook page alongside images of her injuries.

The grainy footage shows two men beating a woman in a black dress, dragging her from a leather sofa and repeatedly kicking her in the head as she desperately tries to get up from the floor. He has offered to pay Sasa $100,000, which she has rejected.

In the attack that lasted about a minute, he apparently punched and kicked Sasa in the face and his bodyguard allegedly pointed a pistol at her.

In an interview with AFP on Thursday SaSa said the argument began when Sok Bun made drunken and unwanted advances towards a Japanese friend. “I would like inform everyone, including journalists, that neither my family nor I have ever said anything about compensation, not even millions”, she said.