By Lauren Crothers
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
A Cambodian court has jailed a woman for life for the murder of a teenage factory worker who she doused with acid after suspecting the girl of having an affair with her husband.
The Phnom Penh Post reported Tuesday that Sroeun Nann, 40, was tried under the country’s three-year-old Acid Law on charges of “intentional killing by the use of concentrated acid.”
The 15-year-old victim, Meas Vanny, had died of her injuries two weeks after the acid was thrown over her face.
According to the Post, on March 6 Nann attacked Vanny — who had lied about her age to get work as a security guard at the Ho Shin Tai garment factory —because she believed the teenager and her husband were romantically involved.
In the sentencing Monday, the judge also slapped Nann with a fine of more than $19,000 and gave her 30 days to appeal his decision.
Erin Bourgois, former project manager at the Cambodian Acid Survivors’ Charity, which has downsized over the past year, told Anadolu Agency by email Tuesday that the sentence was “pretty significant.”
“This is the strongest sentence given to a perpetrator since the Acid Law passed in 2012 [under Article 16: Intentional killing using concentrate acid],” she said.
“I think it sends a strong message. This shows that there are serious consequences to perpetrators and will hopefully act as a deterrent of future attacks,” she added. “I hope that Meas Vanny’s family finds justice for their great loss, though understand it will not make them whole again.”
Bourgois underlined that a decrease in acid attacks over the past few years can be attributed to the passage of the law and the “harsher penalties for perpetrators,” but noted that “issues in its implementation still remain - specifically regarding the [government’s] support for medical and psycho-social services to victims.”
She said the very fact that Nann was able to procure such a large amount of concentrated acid clearly indicates that more needs to be done to regulate the sale of the chemical.
According to the Post, which quoted deputy prosecutor Keo Sokunthea, Nann was able to buy half a liter of the acid for just $2.50 from a local market two days before she doused her victim with it.
The newspaper reported that Nann admitted to the attack, but said she didn’t intend to kill her victim and would appeal.
Acid attacks in Cambodia are commonly - but not exclusively - motivated by anger, jealousy or revenge.
In its annual report for 2014, the survivors’ charity says it recorded five attacks against six victims, and no fatalities.
The figure marked an 83 percent decrease in survivors from 2010, during which the charity documented a record number of 20 acid attacks that left 36 people injured.
As of the end of 2014, it had recorded a total of 332 acid burn incidents with 420 victims since 1964. Of the survivors, around 44 percent are female, 40 percent male and 16 percent children under the age of 13 years.
