By Thai Newsroom Reporters
CERTAIN ELEMENTS OF a powerful regime in Phnom Penh could possibly have masterminded clandestine, cross-border missions to fatally muffle Cambodian dissidents abroad with yesterday’s murder of a former Khmer MP in Bangkok for instance, Fair MP Kannavee Suebsang said today (Jan.8).
The Thai lawmaker was responding to the killing of Lim Kimya, the former Khmer MP, in Banglamphu area of the Thai capital by a lone gunman who has effortlessly made off with his getaway motorcycle and yet remained at large.
Kannavee said the slaying of the former Cambodian MP who had been earlier attached to the court-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue previously led by former opposition leader Sam Rainsy could possibly have been linked with the Phnom Penh regime’s sustained design to fatally suppress dissidents who may have fled the neighbouring country and sought refuge in Thailand and elsewhere.
The Thai MP called on the Pheu Thai-led government to not cooperate, either in clandestine or open fashion, with powerful elements of the Cambodian regime in their alleged cross-border pursuit of silencing any opposition figures in this neighbouring country.
Former Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen who was succeeded by his son Hun Manet as head of government is personally associated with de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra, father of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
Meanwhile, police have launched a manhunt for the hired gunman, identified as Ekaluck Paenoi, who allegedly shot dead the ex-Khmer lawmaker on a busy Bangkok street yesterday.
Ekaluck is reportedly known as a taxi motorcyclist plying Sukhumvit Road area of Bangkok and a former chief petty officer of Thailand’s Marine Corps who had been dismissed from service due to severe disciplinary charges.
Kannavee said the murder of the ex-opposition Khmer MP in Bangkok could probably somehow resemble 2020’s event in which a Thai political activist, namely Wanchalerm Satsaksit, was kidnapped from an apartment building in Phnom Penh.
The mysterious phenomenon could have set a precedent for cross-border suppressions of Khmer dissidents in Thailand clandestinely conducted at the orders of the powerful figures in Cambodia, according to the Thai MP.
The Cambodian authorities have called off a search mission for the abducted Thai activist who was believed to have been fatally silenced.
CAPTIONS:
Above: The suspected hitman riding away after killing the former Cambodian MP. Photo: Thai Rath
Insert: Fair MP Kannavee Suebsang. Photo: Facebook
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