- PHNOM PENH (Reuters)
- Two men accused of eating human body parts, washed down with a bottle
of wine, were freed by a Cambodian provincial court Saturday because there
was no law against cannibalism, a public prosecutor said.
-
- The two men, both crematorium workers, were arrested
last week for eating fingers and toes of a body they were cremating.
-
- "I ordered the military police to release them late
Friday because there is no law to charge them with," Nhou Thol, a
public prosecutor, told Reuters by telephone.
-
- Military police chief Rath Sreang said police in Banteay
Meanchey province, 140 miles northwest of Phnom Penh, were alerted to the
case by villagers, who said the men often ate human parts after relatives
of deceased had left the crematorium.
-
- "The villagers told us they were afraid that when
there is nobody to be cremated, the two men will kill their children to
eat," Rath Sreang said.
-
- Eating human parts was common during the 1975-79 Khmer
Rouge "killing fields" rule, when an estimated 1.7 million people
died from torture, overwork, disease, execution and widespread famine.
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