REPORTER FOUND HACKED TO DEATH IN CAR BOOT

A journalist who exposed illegal logging and corruption has been found axed to death in the boot of his car in Cambodia.

Police found Hang Serei Oudom's blood-covered body in his Toyota Camry saloon, abandoned in a cashew nut plantation in Ratanakiri province, in the northeast of the country.


The 44-year-old reporter for a local newspaper had been missing since leaving his home on Sunday evening. His wife Em Channy, 20, said when she called him, a man answered "in a threatening voice" then hung up.
Colleagues had been worried about his safety after he wrote a series of articles about timber smuggling and corruption in Ratanakiri.

His latest story accused the son of a military police commander of smuggling logs in military-plated vehicles and extorting money from people legally transporting wood.
Senior police officer Song Bunthanorm confirmed police were investigating a murder case and not robbery. He said Mr Oudom was found with several axe wounds to his head.
"He wrote stories about forest crimes involving business people and powerful officials in the province," said Rin Ratanak, editor of Vorakchun Khmer Daily. "Most of his stories were about illegal logging of luxury wood."

Pen Bonnar, from rights group The Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, said: "Before he was murdered, other journalists had warned him not to write critically about forest crimes."
He said illegal logging in Ratanakiri was linked to powerful individuals in Cambodia and was "a dangerous area" for reporters and activists to work in.