Lim Kimya was gunned down in a brazen attack in downtown Bangkok yesterday. (EPA Images pic)
BANGKOK: Police in Cambodia arrested a former Thai marine today over the fatal shooting of a Cambodian opposition politician in a brazen attack in downtown Bangkok.
Exiled Cambodian opposition figurehead Sam Rainsy accused the country’s powerful former leader Hun Sen of ordering the killing of Lim Kimya, who was also a French citizen.
Lim Kimya was shot dead yesterday by a gunman on a motorbike as he arrived in the Thai capital from the Cambodian city of Siem Reap by bus, accompanied by his French wife.
Thai police issued a warrant for the suspected shooter today, and in the evening Cambodia said the man had been detained at 1.50pm in Battambang province, which borders Thailand.
“The gunman is a Thai national, and a former Thai marine,” Cambodian national police spokesman Chhay Kim Khoeun told AFP.
Cambodian police named the suspect as Ekkalak Pheanoi – though some Thai media gave his name as Ekkalak Paenoi – and said he would be returned to Thailand, without giving a timetable.
Earlier, Sanong Sangmanee, police chief for the area of Bangkok where the shooting happened, told AFP they had little information about the suspect except that he worked as a motorbike taxi driver.
Scores of Cambodian opposition activists have fled to Thailand in recent years to avoid alleged repression at home.
Some were arrested and deported back to the country.
Hun Sen ruled Cambodia with an iron fist for nearly four decades, with rights groups accusing him of using the legal system to crush opposition to his rule.
He stepped down and handed power to his son Hun Manet in 2023 but is still seen as a major power in the kingdom.
Yesterday, Hun Sen called for a new law to label anyone who attempts to topple Hun Manet’s government as “terrorists”.
‘Brutal act’
Sam Rainsy, Hun Sen’s long-time rival, accused the former Cambodian leader of being behind the killing.
“Hun Sen’s hand can be seen behind the assassination of Lim Kimya, just as it has been behind the countless political crimes in Cambodia that have always gone unpunished,” Sam Rainsy said in a statement posted on his Facebook page.
He alleged “the motive is the same, as is the modus operandi”.
Cambodian government spokesman Pen Bona told AFP the killing was in Thailand “so Thai authorities will handle the case”.
He denied the government was involved with the killing, saying opposition figures “always accuse the government of everything groundlessly and without any evidence”.
Lim Kimya became an opposition member of Cambodia’s parliament following an election in 2013 in which Hun Sen’s ruling party almost lost to its then-rival, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).
The CNRP, which was founded in 2012 by Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha and was once considered the sole viable opponent to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), was dissolved by court order in 2017.
Scores of opposition politicians and MPs, including Lim Kimya, were banned from political activities following the party’s dissolution.
The now-dissolved CNRP said in a statement it was shocked by “the heinous and inhumane” killing of Lim Kimya.
It condemned “the brutal act that badly threatens political freedom”.
Elaine Pearson, the Asia director of Human Rights Watch, urged Thailand to carry out a “thorough independent investigation” into the killing.
“What has happened in the last 24 hours really sends a chill down the spine for any Cambodian political activists that Bangkok is not a safe place,” she told AFP.
The French embassies in Bangkok and Phnom Penh have so far declined to comment on the killing.
