Gunman gets life sentence for the murder of former opposition politician
A Thai court on Friday imposed the death penalty and commuted it to life imprisonment for a hitman who shot dead a former Cambodian opposition lawmaker in Bangkok in January, the lawyer for the victim’s family told Reuters.
Ekkalak Paenoi, 41 a former Thai marine, was found guilty to the killing of Lim Kimya, 74, who was shot dead in the old quarter of Bangkok hours after arriving from Cambodia with his wife and brother on January 7.
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Ekkalak was arrested in neighbouring Cambodia a day later.
A Thai criminal court handed Ekkalak a death sentence for premeditated murder, and also found him guilty of carrying a weapon and discharging a firearm in public, Nadthasiri Bergman, a lawyer for Lim Kimya’s widow, told Reuters.
“The defendant confessed so the death sentence was reduced to life imprisonment,” Nadthasiri said, adding that Ekkalak was also ordered to pay compensation of 1.79 million baht ($55,162) to the victim’s family.
The court also dismissed a charge against a second defendant, another Thai national accused of driving Ekkalak to the Cambodian border after the shooting, due to insufficient evidence that he was aware of the crime, the lawyer said.
Two Cambodian nationals who are wanted in connection to the killing, Ly Ratanaksmey and Pich Kimsrin, have fled Thailand. Their arrest warrants were issued by a Thai court in January.
Kim Limya’s family wanted the Thai authorities to continue with its investigation and bring the other two to justice, Nadthasiri said.
Lim Kimya, a joint Cambodian and French citizen, was a member of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, a popular opposition movement that was dissolved by a court ahead of a 2018 election because of an alleged treason plot, which it dismissed at the time as a fabrication.
Dramatic arrest
A suspected hitman accused of killing a Cambodian former opposition lawmaker in a brazen attack in Bangkok was handed over to Thai authorities on Saturday from Cambodia, where he had been arrested after crossing the border.
Thai national Ekkalak Paenoi, 41, faces charges including premeditated murder in the Tuesday shooting death of Lim Kimya, 74, in the Thai capital.
“The suspect confessed to the crime and to being the person in the arrest warrant,” Somprasong Yentuam, assistant national police chief, told reporters. “He looked stressed.”
Ekkalak, a motorcycle taxi driver who police officers told Reuters was a former marine, was taken to Bangkok after Thai police coordinated with Cambodian authorities. A Thai court issued the warrant and he was arrested on Wednesday.
Lim Kimya, a Cambodian and French citizen, was killed by a gunman firing three shots, hours after arriving from Cambodia with his wife and brother and travelling to Bangkok by bus, police have said.
He was a member of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, a popular opposition group that was dissolved by a court over an alleged treason plot ahead of a 2018 election. The party dismissed the alleged plot as a fabrication.
Cambodia’s government, led by the Cambodian People’s Party for more than four decades, has conducted a ruthless, years-long crackdown on its opponents, with scores of politicians and activists receiving prison terms, many in absentia, and hundreds more fleeing into exile. It has denied persecuting the opposition.
Lim Kimya was not a prominent member of the opposition movement. Police and the Thai government said they had not to determined the motive for his killing.
