(JTA) – A Cambodian man who killed a Dutch Jewish United Nations worker and her 2-year-old daughter in Phnom Penh was sentenced to 13 years in jail.
Chea Phin, 35, was sentenced on Dec. 24 in the stabbing deaths of Daphna Beerdsen, 31, and her daughter, Dana, in April in their home, the French news agency AFP reported. He had confessed to the killings at his trial earlier in the month and was convicted of murder.
The mother noticed he had broken onto her property in the Cambodian capital and called for help while using a broomstick to fend him off.
“My goal was to steal her bicycle. I did not go (to her house) with the intention to kill them,” Phin said at his trial.
Phin, who was homeless, was arrested at a Buddhist pagoda two days after the stabbings, according to the Cambodia Daily. The victims’ bodies were buried at a Jewish cemetery in Amsterdam.
Beerdsen and her husband, Joris Oele, were U.N. workers living in Cambodia.
Beerdsen was an active member of the city’s Jewish community of 100.
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
