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The Thai authorities accused an adviser to Hun Sen of hiring the gunman who killed a former Cambodian opposition figure in Bangkok last week.
A Thai court issued an arrest warrant for an adviser to the Cambodian strongman Hun Sen on Wednesday, charging him with hiring others to commit “premeditated murder” in the brazen killing of a former Cambodian opposition politician in Bangkok last week.
The warrant was the strongest indication so far that Lim Kimya, who was gunned down on a busy street, was the victim of a political assassination. He was a former legislator with the Cambodia National Rescue Party, an opposition party that was dissolved under pressure from Mr. Hun Sen, who ruled Cambodia as prime minister for nearly four decades. Mr. Hun Sen handed that job to his son Hun Manet in 2023 but remains the leader of his political party and the country’s senate.
The person named in the arrest warrant is Somwang Bamrungkit, 42, a dual Thai-Cambodian national who is known in Cambodia as Ly Rotanakraksmey. Thai prosecutors brought three charges against him, including one involving carrying firearms and firing guns. His current location remains unclear. .
Sok Eysan, a spokesman for the Hun dynasty’s Cambodian People’s Party, said even though Mr. Ly Rotanakraksmey was an adviser to Mr. Hun Sen, “what he does illegally, it is that person’s responsibility.” Mr. Hun Sen has appointed dozens of advisers, and the exact nature of his relationship with Mr. Ly Rotanakraksmey was not immediately clear.
Last Tuesday, a gunman shot Mr. Lim Kimya, 73, who was a dual French and Cambodian citizen, after he got off a bus from Cambodia to neighboring Thailand. The gunman fled on a motorcycle and boarded a pickup truck before he crossed into Cambodia. But in the following days, he was arrested and extradited to Thailand, where authorities identified him as Ekaluck Paenoi. He confessed to the killing but told Thai investigators that he could not reveal the mastermind out of fear for his family’s safety.
Cambodian dissidents, including Sam Rainsy, who once led the C.N.R.P., have said the ultimate blame for the killing lies with Mr. Hun Sen.