The Thai authorities accused an adviser to Hun Sen of hiring the gunman who killed a former Cambodian opposition figure in Bangkok last week.

Lim Kimya was gunned down by a motorcyclist as he arrived in Bangkok by bus from Cambodia with his French wife.

Lim Kimya, 74, a former lawmaker of the now-defunct Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was shot and killed in Bangkok, Thailand, by Thai national Ekkalak Phaenoi. After the attack, Ekkalak fled to Cambodia but was captured by Battambang authorities and handed over to their Thai counterparts.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet denied on Monday his government and father, former leader Hun Sen, were involved in the killing of an opposition politician in downtown Bangkok this month.

Lim Kimya, 74, a former member of parliament for the banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was gunned down in Bangkok on Jan. 7. The suspected gunman, Aekaluck Paenoi, a former Thai Marine, was arrested the day after in Cambodia’s Battambang province and was extradited to Thailand on Jan. 11.

by a motorcyclist as he arrived in Bangkok by bus from Cambodia with his French wife. Cambodian Opposition figures have accused the country’s powerful former leader Hun Sen of ordering the shooting.

Hun Sen ruled Cambodia with an iron fist for nearly ... and looks to be a significant escalation in the use of transnational repression in Bangkok" to intimidate opposition of the ruling government.

Sanong Sangmanee, police chief of the downtown area of Bangkok where the fatal shooting ... act that badly threatens political freedom". Hun Sen ruled Cambodia with an iron fist for nearly four ...

Lim Kimya was shot twice and died near the Khao San Road tourist precinct on January 7 by former Thai naval marine Ekkalak Pheanoi who then fled into Cambodia where he was apprehended and extradited. Thai police say Ekkalak has confessed to the murder.

"This brazen shooting of a former CNRP MP on the streets of Bangkok has all the hallmarks ... in which the ruling party under former leader Hun Sen almost lost to its then-rival, the Cambodia ...

Thai national Ekalak Paenoi, center, the prime suspect in the killing of former lawmaker of the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) Lim Kimya, is escorted by police officers at the police airport in Bangkok on Jan 11, 2025, after returning from Cambodia. (Photo: AFP)

The Prime Minister emphasised that if the government had orchestrated the murder, they would not have apprehended the suspect and handed him over to Thai authorities.