BANGKOK (AFP) – A Thai man accused of killing a former Cambodian opposition lawmaker in Bangkok said he committed the crime to repay someone who helped him during a tough period in his life, police told AFP yesterday.
Ekkalak Paenoi confessed to the crime on Saturday in a livestream video after being charged with premeditated murder and unauthorised gun ownership.
Former lawmaker for the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), Lim Kimya, was gunned down last Tuesday by a motorcyclist as he arrived in Bangkok by bus from Cambodia with his French wife.
Cambodian opposition figures have accused the country’s powerful former leader Hun Sen of ordering the shooting, although a government spokesman has denied official involvement.
Ekkalak – who Thai media have said was a former marine – was arrested in Cambodia last Wednesday, before being extradited to Thailand on Saturday.
“The shooter said he took this job to pay a debt of gratitude to someone who had helped him during a tough period after he was sacked from the navy,” said Senior Police official in Bangkok Attaporn Wongsiripreeda.
Some Thai media reports said he was paid THB60,000 (USD1,700), but Attaporn told a local broadcaster that Ekkalak claimed he did not receive payment.
Another senior police official said on Saturday that an arrest warrant for a Cambodian accomplice had also been issued.
At a court hearing today, police planned to place Ekkalak – who worked as a motorbike taxi driver – in pre-trial detention.
