A politician was shot dead in Bangkok. Did any other country do this?

It had all the hallmarks of a brutal, professional murder.

A man is seen in security camera video parking his motorcycle next to a famous temple in Bangkok’s historic Royal Quarter, taking off his helmet so his face is clearly visible, and walking calmly down the street Could.

After a few minutes the sound of gunshots is heard. Another man falls to the ground.

The killer quickly returns to his motorcycle, appears as if he is throwing something, and drives off.

The main victim was Lim Kimya, a 73-year-old former lawmaker from the Cambodian opposition party. CNRP, which was banned in 2017According to Thai police, he was hit by two bullets in his chest. He had recently reached Bangkok with his wife in a bus from Cambodia.

A police officer attempted to revive him, but he was declared dead at the scene.

“He was an independent-minded adventurer,” Monovithya Kem, daughter of CNRP leader Kem Sokha, told the BBC.

“Nobody other than the Cambodian state would want to kill him.”

Lim Kimya held dual Cambodian and French nationality, but chose to remain in Cambodia even after his party was outlawed. The CNRP – the Cambodia National Rescue Party – was an amalgamation of two former opposition parties, and in 2013 came close to defeating the party of Hun Sen, the self-styled “strongman” who had ruled Cambodia for nearly 40 years. Before handing over to his son Hun Manet in 2023,

Following his close call in the 2013 election, Hun Sen accused the CNRP of treason, shutting it down and its members facing legal and other forms of harassment. In 2023, Kem Sokha, who had already served six years under house arrest, was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

High-level political assassinations, although not unknown, are relatively rare in Cambodia; In 2016, Kem Le, a popular critic of Hun Sen, was shot in Phnom Penh, and in 2012, environmental activist Chut Wutti was also murdered,

Thai police have already identified Lim Kimya’s killer as an ex-Thai Navy officer, now working as a motorcycle taxi driver, from security camera video. It shouldn’t be hard to find him.

However, whether or not the murder has been thoroughly investigated is another matter.

Dozens of activists fleeing repression in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand in recent years have been turned back, seeking asylum, or in some cases have been killed or disappeared. Human rights groups believe there is an unwritten agreement between the four neighboring countries under which each other’s security forces will be allowed to pursue dissidents across the border.

Last November Thailand deported six Cambodian dissidents, including a young child, back to Cambodia, where they were immediately jailed. All were recognized as refugees by the United Nations. Earlier in the year, Thailand also deported a Vietnamese Montagnard activist back to Vietnam.

Thai anti-monarchy activists have in the past been kidnapped and disappeared in Laos, with it being widely believed that Thai security forces are operating outside their borders. A young Thai activist who fled to Cambodia in 2020 Wanchelarm Satsaksit was kidnapped and disappearedAgain this has been assumed by Thai operatives.

Cambodian authorities made little effort to investigate and announced last year that they had closed the case. It is possible that now the same will happen in Lim Kimya’s case also.

“Thailand has actually presided over a ‘swap arrangement,'” says Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates in Thailand.

“Dissidents and refugees are traded with its neighboring countries for political and economic gain. The growing practice of international repression in the Mekong sub-region needs to be stopped.”

When Hun Manet, who was educated in the US and Britain, succeeded his father as Prime Minister of Cambodia, there was some speculation over whether he might rule with a light hand. But opposition figures are still being prosecuted and jailed, and what little space was left for political dissent has almost completely closed down.

Since his semi-retirement, Hun Sen’s face still looms over his son’s administration; Now he is demanding a new law to label anyone who tries to take his place as a terrorist.

Thailand, which fought hard for and won a seat on the UN Human Rights Council this year, will now be under pressure to show it can bring to justice those behind such a brutal killing on the streets of its capital. Could.