POLICE are urgently hunting for a suspect in the murder of a former Cambodian MP in the heart of Bangkok last evening (Jan. 7) while certain he was helped by a second person who pointed out the target with this person possibly being a member of the same tour group, TV Channel 7 said around noon today.
Pol. Lt. Gen. Sayam Boonsom, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, held a meeting to follow up on the assassination of former Cambodian MP Lim Kimya, 73, after an arrest warrant was issued for Mr. Ekkalak Panoi, a former navy marine, whose nickname is “Sergeant Em Kongruea”.
Lim Kimya, who held both French and Cambodian nationalities, was shot at point-blank range by the assassin in front of Wat Bowonniwet Vihara at 5.45 p.m. yesterday, being hit at his ribs and right shoulder. Pol. Col. Sanong Saengmani, superintendent of Chana Songkhram police station, assisted rescue workers in giving him cardiopulmonary resuscitation(CPR), but the injured man was in critical condition and died at the scene.
The deceased is a member of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which is known for its commitment to check the government despite political pressure.
The CNRP was dissolved by the court on Nov. 16, 2017, leading to Lim Kimya, along with over a hundred other CNRP members and party officials, being banned from holding political positions for five years. As one of only twenty MPs still based at the CNRP headquarters in Phnom Penh, he continued to be politically active, even as other members had withdrawn from public life to avoid arrest.
It is likely the suspect was hired to kill the Cambodian politician and someone must have pointed the target to him because normally a hitman does not know the victim, Pol. Lt. Gen. Sayam said.
While police have gathered quite a lot of useful information, the name of the “pointer”, what nationality he is and whether he travelled to Thailand in the same tour bus as the deceased cannot be revealed.
“The motive is still unclear, and the police have not ruled out any possibilities, whether it be political or personal conflict. We want to catch the gunman first,” he said.
The deceased former Cambodian MP travelled to Thailand with his wife and a friend as part of a 23-person tour group with the bus passing through the immigration checkpoint at Ban Khlong Luek, Aranyaprathet district, Sa Kaeo province.
Both his wife and friend as well as others in the tour group are all still in Thailand and are still being questioned with this taking time because there are so many of them.
However police found out that a Cambodian tourist who travelled to Thailand with this same tour group left the country from Suvarnabhumi Airport at 7 p.m. It is as yet unclear whether this person was involved in Lim Kimya’s murder but Immigration Police have already sent information about this individual to the Metropolitan Police investigators.
The suspect, Sgt. Em, has been placed on a watchlist to prevent him leaving the country and while he has not passed through any immigration checkpoint so far, it is uncertain whether he has left the country through natural channels.
Meanwhile a forensic doctor at Vajira Hospital who performed an autopsy on the deceased former Cambodian MP found two bullet wounds one entering the right shoulder blade and the other the middle of the back. The cause of death was ruptured heart and liver.
CAPTION:
Former Cambodian MP Lim Kimya, left, and a pixelated image of the suspect “Sergeant Em Kongruea”. Composite photo: Amarin TV
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