Suspected killer of former Cambodia lawmaker sent to Thailand By Reuters

BANGKOK (Reuters) – An alleged assassin accused of killing a former Cambodian opposition lawmaker in a brutal attack in Bangkok surrendered to Thai authorities on Saturday from Cambodia, where he was arrested after crossing the border.

Thai national Ekkalak Paeno, 41, faces charges including manslaughter in the shooting death of Lim Kimya, 74, in the Thai capital on Tuesday.

“The suspect confessed to the crime and the person he was arrested for,” Somprasong Yentuam, assistant chief of the national police, told reporters. “He looked tense.”

Ekkalak, a motorcycle taxi driver who police officials told Reuters was a former marine, was transferred to Bangkok after Thai police agreed with Cambodian authorities. A Thai court issued a warrant and he was arrested on Wednesday.

Lim Kimya, a Cambodian-French citizen, was shot dead three hours after arriving from Cambodia with his wife and brother and leaving for Bangkok by bus, police said.

He was a member of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, a prominent opposition group that was disbanded by a court for alleged treason ahead of the 2018 election, which the party has dismissed as a fabrication.

The Cambodian government, led by the Cambodian People’s Party for more than four decades, has carried out a brutal years-long crackdown on its opponents, with scores of politicians and activists jailed, many in absentia, and hundreds fleeing into exile. It has denied persecution of the opposition.

Lim Kimya was not a prominent member of the opposition movement. Police and the Thai government have said they have not determined a motive for his murder.