{"id":3091,"date":"2025-10-03T07:37:41","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T07:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/03\/cambodian-former-opposition-politicians-killer-jailed-for-life-in-thailand\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T07:37:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T07:37:41","slug":"cambodian-former-opposition-politicians-killer-jailed-for-life-in-thailand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/03\/cambodian-former-opposition-politicians-killer-jailed-for-life-in-thailand\/","title":{"rendered":"Cambodian former opposition politician\u2019s killer jailed for life in Thailand"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Lim Kimya was killed in January by Ekkalak Paenoi while visiting Bangkok with his wife, Anne-Marie Lim.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>A court in Thailand has sentenced a Thai gunman to life imprisonment for killing a Cambodian opposition politician in Bangkok, a murder opposition figures have accused Phnom Penh\u2019s powerful former leader Hun Sen of ordering.<\/p>\n<p>French national Lim Kimya, a former opposition politician in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/where\/cambodia\/\">Cambodia<\/a>, was shot dead on January 7 by Ekkalak Paenoi, a former marine, as the ex-MP visited Bangkok with his wife and brother.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/9\/6\/thailands-pm-elect-names-veterans-to-cabinet-in-bid-to-bring-confidence\">Thailand\u2019s PM-elect names veterans to cabinet in bid to \u2018bring confidence\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/9\/18\/thai-forces-fire-rubber-bullets-tear-gas-in-clash-with-cambodian-villagers\">Thai forces fire rubber bullets, tear gas in clash with Cambodian villagers<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/9\/29\/thailands-new-pm-vows-to-tackle-cambodia-border-conflict-economic-woes\">Thailand\u2019s new PM vows to tackle Cambodia border conflict, economic woes<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Ekkalak was arrested in neighbouring Cambodia a day after the shooting and confessed to committing the murder in a livestreamed video.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe actions of the first defendant caused harm to the plaintiff,\u201d the Bangkok Criminal Court judge said on Friday. \u201cSince he confessed, the court reduced the sentence to life imprisonment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The court had earlier handed Ekkalak a death sentence for premeditated murder, and also found him guilty of carrying a weapon and discharging a firearm in public, Nadthasiri Bergman, a lawyer for Lim Kimya\u2019s widow, Anne-Marie Lim, told the Reuters news agency.<\/p>\n<p>Ekkalak was also ordered to pay compensation of 1.79m baht ($55,162) to the victim\u2019s family.<\/p>\n<p>The sentencing was issued three days after the trial began, with an examination of witnesses, including Lim.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnne-Marie is probably satisfied with today\u2019s verdict, but she is still questioning who ordered the crime,\u201d Bergman told reporters outside the court on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe wants authorities to get to the bottom of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know the suspects are in Cambodia, and [the Thai government] could help push the extradition process to bring them to justice,\u201d Bergman added.<\/p>\n<p>The judge did not offer details about the killer\u2019s motive or a possible mastermind behind the murder.<\/p>\n<p>Thai police said in January they were also seeking to arrest Ly Ratanaksmey and Pich Kimsrin, two Cambodian nationals wanted in connection with the killing, who have fled Thailand.<\/p>\n<p>The court on Friday dismissed the charges against a second defendant, Thai national Chakrit Buakhil, who was accused of driving Ekkalak to the Cambodian border after the shooting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was only a driver and did not know what was happening,\u201d Chakrit\u2019s lawyer, Natchapong Moosakopas, told the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n<p>The two defendants walked into the court on Friday morning wearing prison uniforms, their hands cuffed together.<\/p>\n<p>Some Thai media reported this year that Ekkalak was paid 60,000 baht ($1,800) for the killing, but police said he claimed he did not receive payment and took the job \u201cto pay a debt of gratitude\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Lim Kimya was a member of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, a popular opposition movement that was dissolved by a court ahead of a 2018 election because of an alleged treason plot, which it dismissed at the time as a fabrication.<\/p>\n<p>Cambodia\u2019s Prime Minister Hun Manet has denied his government or his father Hun Sen\u2019s involvement in Lim Kimya\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n<p>The former premier led Cambodia for nearly four decades until 2023. Western nations and rights groups have long accused his government of using the legal system to crush the opposition.<\/p>\n<p>Thailand and Cambodia have a long history of tensions, which <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/8\/12\/thailand-accuses-cambodia-of-planting-landmines-after-soldier-injured\">sharply escalated<\/a> in July during a five-day conflict over undemarcated points along their 817km (508-mile) land border.<\/p>\n<p>At least 43 people were killed, and more than 300,000 people on both sides were displaced during the worst fighting between the neighbours in more than a decade, which came to an end after a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/8\/4\/thailand-cambodia-officials-meet-in-malaysia-to-cement-ceasefire-details\">ceasefire was brokered by Malaysia<\/a> on July 28.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lim Kimya was killed in January by Ekkalak Paenoi while visiting Bangkok with his wife, Anne-Marie Lim. A court in Thailand has sentenced a Thai gunman to life imprisonment for killing a Cambodian opposition politician in Bangkok, a murder opposition figures have accused Phnom Penh\u2019s powerful former leader Hun Sen of ordering. French national Lim &#8230; <a title=\"Cambodian former opposition politician\u2019s killer jailed for life in Thailand\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/03\/cambodian-former-opposition-politicians-killer-jailed-for-life-in-thailand\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Cambodian former opposition politician\u2019s killer jailed for life in Thailand\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}