Husband and wife clinic owners in Cambodia dump dead patient and a 3-year-old kid by deserted road

The owners of an unlicensed maternity clinic in Cambodia have been charged with multiple offences after dumping the body of a patient who died after being injected with an unknown substance.

The couple admitted having disposed of the body of 41-year-old Nam Chanthou. They also left the woman’s three-year-old niece alone with the corpse, when they disposed of it in the undergrowth along a deserted road, nearly 4km from their clinic in Takeo province in southern Cambodia.

A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said that Sun Marina, 39, and her husband, Hieng Songhak, also known as Nget, 37, were operating the clinic called Songhak Marina Maternity and Treatment Clinic without licence in the Boeung Ponhea Kuk village of Bati district’s Trapaing Krasang commune.

On Nov 18, Marina administered an injection to the victim, who experienced a severe reaction and died while still on the premises. 

Marina and her husband admitted to transporting the victim’s body, along with her three-year-old niece, to a forested area in nearby Chambak commune to “conceal the corpse”.

On Nov 21, Bati district police took the suspects to court.

After questioning the suspects and examining the evidence, the Takeo provincial court prosecutor charged Marina with four offences: involuntary manslaughter, practising medicine without a licence, concealment of a corpse, and torture and cruel treatment causing severe consequences to the victim.

Her husband was charged with practising medicine without a licence, acting as an accomplice in concealing a corpse, and acting as an accomplice in torture and cruel treatment causing severe consequences to the victim.

Authorities shuttered the clinic on Nov 19. THE PHNOM PENH POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK