Thai hitman gets life sentence for murder of Cambodian opposition politician

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

BANGKOK (Reuters) -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.

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 itdismissed at the time as a fabrication.

($1 = 32.45 baht)

(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by David Stanway)