The Court of Appeals is expected to hold a hearing Friday on the freeing of seven suspects, including a high-ranking military police official, accused in an acid attack, a rights worker said Monday.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court released Chea Rotha, a brigadier general in the military police, and six alleged accomplices in August, in a case stemming from a 2008 attack on a family member of her reported former lover, beauty queen In Solida.

“Because the Appeals Court has quickly brought the case for a hearing, we hope the Appeals Court will give justice to the victim,” Am Sam Ath, a rights investigator for Lichado, told VOA Khmer.

If the Appeals Court rejects the finding of the lower court, namely, to release the suspects, the case can be reinvestigated, either by the Appeals Court itself​ or through an order to the municipal court, he said.

In Solida, whose aunt was disfigured in the attack, has blamed Chea Rotha, who she left after an affair in 2008.