BANGKOK — A Thai criminal court sentenced a former naval serviceman to life imprisonment on Thursday for the assassination of a Cambodian opposition politician in central Bangkok earlier this year.
The Criminal Court on Ratchadaphisek Road handed down the verdict to Petty Officer Ekkalak Paenoi, widely known as “Sergeant M,” for the January 7 killing of Lim Kimya, a 74-year-old former member of Cambodia’s opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party. The court also ordered him to pay 1.79 million baht ($52,000) in compensation to the victim’s widow, Anne-Marie Lim.
According to the Associated Press, Lawyer Nadthasiri Bergman, who represents Lim Kimya’s wife, said her client may file an appeal demanding a higher amount of compensation. She demanded police push harder to bring the two other suspects to justice.
Ekkalak had served in the Royal Thai Navy as a technician before the shooting occurred around 5:30 p.m. at a traffic circle near Khao San Road area of Phra Nakhon district. Lim was shot while in his vehicle in broad daylight in one of Bangkok’s busiest tourist districts.
The defendant confessed to the crime, which reduced his sentence from the death penalty to life imprisonment. The court found that he acted with premeditation and intent to kill.
A second defendant, taxi driver Chakit (or Chamnan) Buaplee, was acquitted. Prosecutors had charged him with harboring a criminal, alleging he drove Ekkalak to Khlong Hat district in Sa Kaeo province for 4,500 baht immediately after the shooting. However, the court ruled there was insufficient evidence that Buaplee knew about the crime or intended to help the gunman evade justice.
According to investigation records, Ekkalak fled to Cambodia through the Khao Din Permanent Border Crossing Point in Sa Kaeo at 11:41 p.m. on the night of the shooting. Thai Metropolitan Police worked with Cambodian authorities to apprehend him. He was detained in Battambang before being transferred to the Internal Security Command Headquarters in Phnom Penh and subsequently extradited to Thailand on January 11.
Despite his confession, Ekkalak has refused to identify who ordered the hit, claiming only that his benefactor had supported him and that he took the job out of gratitude. A second suspect, believed to be Cambodian and suspected of providing intelligence for the assassination, fled to Cambodia and remains at large.
The case has shocked both Thailand and Cambodia due to the brazen nature of the attack in the heart of Bangkok’s tourist district, raising questions about transnational political violence and the safety of political exiles in Thailand.
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