Cambodian soldier among 10 arrested over illegal logging patrol murders
A forest ranger and a policeman were killed while investigating the illegal trade
Ten people, including a soldier, have been arrested over the murders of a forest ranger and a policeman who were investigating illegal logging in Cambodia, officials said on Friday.
Probes into the lucrative trade are steeped with risk and several high-profile killings of activists trying to expose the rampant spread of logging have blighted the kingdom in recent years.
Forest ranger Sieng Darong, 47, and police officer Sab Yoh, 29, were shot dead on Saturday during a patrol of the protected northwestern Preah Vihear forest in an attack which also wounded another ranger.
Read more: Chinese demand drives trade in protected Cambodian wood: NGO
The pair were “gunned down by cold-blooded killers with high powered weapons as they slept during an overnight patrol”, Ross Sinclair, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Cambodia, said in a statement.
The men were killed hours after they confiscated chainsaws from an illegal logging site, according to the WCS, which has patrolled the area since 2000.
On Friday Colonel Khat Hun, deputy chief of Preah Vihear provincial police, said that 10 suspects, including a soldier, who were believed to be involved in unsanctioned logging in the forest, had been arrested and sent to court over the murders.
