Bangkok (AFP) – An alleged gunman went on trial Tuesday in Bangkok over the murder of a Cambodian opposition politician whose widow called for a full accounting of who was behind the killing.
French national 73-year-old Lim Kimya, a former opposition lawmaker in Cambodia, was shot dead on January 7 by a motorcyclist as the ex-MP arrived in the Thai capital.
A Thai citizen, Ekkalak Paenoi, was arrested in neighbouring Cambodia a day later and handed over to Thai authorities. He now faces a premeditated murder charge.
Ekkalak confessed to the killing in a livestream video, but Lim Kimya’s widow, Anne-Marie Lim, said Tuesday she wanted to know why her husband was murdered.
“I want to know the reason for this crime and who ordered it. That’s what I want to know most of all,” she told AFP outside the court in Bangkok, carrying a portrait of her slain husband.
“His death has turned everything upside down in my daily life,” Lim said, weeping.
Cambodian opposition figures have accused the country’s powerful former leader Hun Sen of ordering the shooting.
Cambodia’s leader Hun Manet, has denied his government or his father Hun Sen’s involvement.
Hun Sen led Cambodia for nearly four decades until 2023, and Western nations and rights groups have long accused his government of using the legal system to crush the opposition.
Flanked by her legal team on Tuesday, Anne-Marie Lim said she wanted justice for her husband, who she called a “hero”.
“He defended the Cambodian people, and he only thought about doing good and improving life in Cambodia,” she said. “That’s why he was in opposition to the government.”
Also on trial is Thai national Chakrit Buakhil, who is believed to be the man who drove Ekkalak to the Cambodian border after the shooting, Lim’s lawyer told AFP.
Some Thai media reports said the accused shooter was paid 60,000 baht ($1,800) for the killing but police say he has claimed he did not receive payment and took the job “to pay a debt of gratitude”.
Cambodian suspects
Lim Kimya was an MP in Cambodia from 2013 to 2017, when his party, the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was dissolved by the country’s Supreme Court.
He then withdrew from politics and returned to France, according to a statement from his wife’s lawyers.
Thai police said in January that they were seeking to arrest a Cambodian national believed to be the mastermind behind Lim Kimya’s killing.
They identified two Cambodian suspects: Ly Ratanakrasksmey, accused of having recruited the gunman, and Pich Kimsrin, the alleged lookout who local media has reported was on the bus alongside the victim and his wife.
Days after the killing, following media reports that Ratanakrasksmey was a former adviser to Hun Sen, Cambodia’s ruling party released a statement saying he was dismissed from the role in March 2024.
“We have learned that there are two (Cambodians), one of whom organised this crime,” Anne-Marie Lim said before entering the court on Tuesday.
She added that she feared the alleged mastermind may never be held accountable — even though his name is known and he is believed to be in Cambodia.
Nadthasiri Bergman, one of her lawyers in Thailand, told AFP that since the gunman had confessed, she believed he would be convicted.
“But our concern is that we might not get to the bottom of why the assassination happened, and we hope to find that answer today during the witness examination,” Bergman said.
The trial is expected to conclude in March.
