BANGKOK - Thai police charged with premeditated murder on Monday the main suspect in the killing of a Cambodian government critic gunned down on a busy Bangkok street last week.
A gunman shot dead Lim Kimya, 74, a former member of the banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP, on Jan. 7 in Bangkok’s old quarter. He died at the scene.
Police identified the suspected killer as Aekaluck Paenoi, a former Thai navy officer who worked as a motorcycle taxi driver. Cambodian police arrested him in the western border province of Battambang the day after the shooting and sent him back to Thailand on Saturday.
“We have charged him with three counts, premeditated murder, illegally carrying weapons in public areas and unlawful discharge of firearms,” Police Lt. Col. Sanong Sangmanee told reporters.
Sanong and investigators from the National Crime Suppression Center escorted Aekaluck to Bangkok’s Criminal Court on Monday for a pre-trial detention hearing.
The suspect showed no emotion during his court appearance and declined to respond to questions from reporters. His mother, speaking briefly to the media before the hearing, said friends had arranged legal representation.
“I haven’t seen him yet, he said he wanted to be strong first, and then we’ll talk,” said the mother, who declined to be identified.
Justice Minster Tawee Sodsong said Aekaluck would be transferred to Bangkok’s Special Prison where he would be under special guard.
“The facility will implement comprehensive monitoring measures, including constant CCTV surveillance ... thorough risk assessment will also be conducted,” the minister confirmed.
Thai authorities are hunting for a second suspect in connection with the killing who they have identified as Pich Kimsrin, a Cambodian who police believe acted as a spotter in the assassination. His whereabouts are not known.
Thai media outlets have also released CCTV footage showing the 24-year-old Pich Kimsrin shadowing Lim Kimya and his family in Bangkok and riding the same cross-border bus.
Lim Kimya, who had dual French-Cambodian citizenship, was an outspoken critic of Cambodia’s veteran strongman leader, Hun Sen. He had arrived in Thailand by bus from Cambodia’s Siem Reap province, with his French wife and Cambodian uncle, shortly before he was killed.
Cambodian connection
CCTV footage shows who Thai police believe to be Pich Kimsrin at the scene of the murder but it is unclear if Cambodian officials have initiated an investigation into him. Cambodian authorities have told Radio Free Asia they will investigate the case only following a request from their Thai counterparts.
While Cambodian officials remain silent on the suspected involvement of Pich Kimsrin in the killing, opposition activists and other Cambodians have been using open source information to, first, identify him, and then try to understand more about his background.
Pich Kimsrin is the brother of Pich Sros, a politician who initiated proceedings against the CNRP that led to its 2017 dissolution.
A review of publicly available information by RFA reveals that Pich Kimsrin was the deputy head of the administration running the Phsar Kandal market in Phnom Penh, according to a since-deleted post on the market’s Facebook page.
Additionally, one of Pich Kimsrin’s Facebook accounts shows that he started his career as a journalist for a pro-government news outlet called Fast News Daily, where he wrote sports and entertainment stories that have since been deleted from the news site.
Rights activists and Cambodian government critics said the shooting of Lim Kimya bore the hallmarks of a political assassination
Cambodia’s authoritarian government has for decades crushed virtually all dissent and its opponents have accused it of numerous killings over the years, which it has denied.
A Cambodian government spokesperson last week rejected any suggestion that Cambodia could be blamed for a killing in another country.
Edited by Mike Firn
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news organization.