Remains of South Korean student allegedly tortured, killed in Cambodian scam centre repatriated
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The student's body was cremated before being returned to South Korea on Oct 21.
PHOTO: THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
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SEOUL – The cremated remains of a South Korean college student who was allegedly tortured and killed in a Cambodian scam compound
A Korean Air flight carrying the ashes of the victim, surnamed Park, landed at Incheon Airport at 8.04am(7.04am Singapore time) on Oct 21.
Mr Jang Jin-wook, head of forensic operations at the Korean National Police Agency, who led the South Korean authorities’ joint autopsy with Cambodian officials a day earlier, exited the arrivals gate holding the white-shrouded urn.
An official from the Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency, leading the investigation into Mr Park’s death, received the remains from Mr Jang at the airport and was to hand them over to the bereaved family later in the day.
Mr Park’s family did not go to the airport, and the police did not organise a press briefing out of respect for their wishes.
The repatriation of Mr Park’s remains came just a day after the joint autopsy was conducted in Phnom Penh’s Tuo Totung Pagoda by a team of six investigators from South Korea and Cambodia.
Following the autopsy, the body was cremated before being returned to South Korea on Oct 21.
According to police officials, Mr Park had been lured to Cambodia under false pretences and detained in what the authorities described as a scam compound – part of a widespread criminal network in South-east Asia that forces abducted foreign nationals into committing online fraud.
Mr Park was later found dead in a car near Bokor Mountain in Kampot, with the local police stating that his body showed clear signs of torture, including bruises and wounds.
Following the autopsy on Oct 20, the South Korean authorities confirmed that there were no signs of organ harvesting or mutilation of Mr Park’s body.
As Mr Park’s exact cause of death is still unclear, the authorities said there would be further pathological and toxicological analysis in South Korea, in combination with the ongoing investigations in both countries. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
