🔗 Share this article

A court in Thailand has sentenced a man to life in prison for killing a well-known Cambodian opposition politician in the Thai capital.

In January, shortly after the politician arrived in the capital city of Thailand with his spouse, he was shot dead in a public area by Thai national Ekkalak Paenoi. Ekkalak then escaped to Cambodia, where he was arrested and deported.

Ekkalak had originally received the death penalty, but that was reduced to life imprisonment because of his confession to the murder, the judicial body said on Friday.

The motive for the politician's killing remains unclear - though it has been widely suspected to be a politically motivated targeted killing.

Political Context in Cambodia

Opposition politicians and campaigners are often imprisoned and harassed in the nation, where government officials have minimal acceptance for opposition views.

Lim Kimya, who had dual Cambodian and French nationality, was a former parliamentarian from the primary opposition group in Cambodia, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

The CNRP had nearly succeeded in overthrowing the incumbent government of former leader the previous prime minister in 2013.

After the former leader accused the opposition party of treason, the political organization was outlawed in 2017 and its members were prohibited from taking part in political engagements.

Cambodian Prime Minister the new leader - who succeeded his father the former PM in 2023 - has rejected claims that the government was implicated in the assassination.

Details of the Legal Proceedings

Surveillance video from January showed the convicted man parking his motorbike, removing his helmet and walking calmly across the street before gunfire was heard.

Ekkalak was also convicted of carrying and using a firearm, and ordered to pay around 55,000 US dollars (£40,800) to the victim's relatives.

The tribunal dismissed a charge against a second suspect - a Thai national accused of transporting Ekkalak to the Cambodian border after the shooting - on the grounds that he was only a driver who did not know about the killing.

Reactions and Wider Consequences

The lawyer for the widow of the victim told news agency the press that she was "likely content" with Friday's verdict, though she was "continuing to ask who commissioned the offense".

"She wants authorities to get to the bottom of it."

In the past few years dozens of protesters fleeing crackdowns in Southeast Asian nations have been returned after requesting asylum, or in certain instances have been murdered or gone missing.

Advocacy organizations believe there is an unwritten agreement among the four adjacent nations to permit each other's law enforcement to chase dissidents over the border.