Phnom penh: Police will seek a joint autopsy with Cambodian authorities on a South Korean university student who died after allegedly being tortured by a local crime ring, officials said Sunday. The Korean student in his 20s was found dead in Cambodia on Aug. 8 after he left for the Southeast Asian country on July 17, telling his family that he was attending an exhibition there.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the death certificate listed cardiac arrest caused by torture and extreme pain as the cause of his death. With the repatriation of his body delayed amid an ongoing probe, Korean investigators plan to join Cambodian authorities for a joint autopsy later this month, as a simple postmortem examination is considered insufficient to determine the exact cause of death, officials said.
Officials from the Korean National Police Agency and the Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency plan to depart after finalizing the schedule with local authorities, they noted. The victim was from the southeastern province. “The repatriation process will proceed after conducting an autopsy in accordance with intergovernmental procedures,” said Ahn Jung-man, a senior official at the Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency. “We will focus on determining the exact cause of death and investigating those behind the case.”
The student’s body was found near Bokor Mountain in Kampot Province, where employment scams and detentions targeting South Koreans have frequently occurred.