After the arrest in Cambodia of a suspected Thai hunter, Thai complicity also sought.
Thai police are also looking for at least two Vietnamese suspects, according to a top Bangkok police officer, and have asked Vietnamese authorities to extradite a Thai ex-marine who is suspected of killing a previous Cambodian opposition MP.
According to Pol Maj Gen Theeradet Thumsuthee, analytical commander of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, they are optimistic that Ekalak Paenoi, the murder suspect, will get returned to Thailand in a quarter or less after Thai officials finish prosecuting him for illegal access.
He said on Thursday that a deputy national police chief and the Bangkok police chief have already written letters to the Thai president asking for Mr. Ekalak, also known as” Sergeant Em,” to be extradited.
Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong claimed that Cambodia has previously informed Thai officials that it will apprehend the believe. According to the chancellor, this demonstrated Cambodia’s desire to learn the true reason for the crime. He anticipates that the abduction will occur within a few days.
The swift action by Phnom Penh is also seen as a way to quieten those who think the shooting was motivated by a long-running battle by the government’s ruling party against its allies.
Mr Ekalak was arrested in Battambang, Cambodia, on Wednesday night, a moment after Lim Kimya, 73, was gunned down in front of his wife and brother near Wat Bowonniwet Vihara in Phra Nakhon city of Bangkok.
The suspect fled the scene right away, but he later made an attempt to entice police by traveling through Chon Buri and Chanthaburi counties before advancing up to Sa Kaeo and entering Cambodia from it, according to Pol Maj Gen Theeradet.
Authorities did not find a weapon on the suspect when he was arrested, he said.
Thai police have followed their rivals from Cambodia to Battambang, but they have not however questioned the suspect or known the reason he escaped to Cambodia, according to Pol Maj Gen Theeradet.
At least two Thai suspects and potential other partners are still at large, he added.
One of them was the spy who had just before the shooting pointed out Lim Kimya to the shooter. The spy apparently arrived at the scene on the same vehicle that Lim Kimya was taking from Siem Reap, Cambodia.
The spy instantly left Thailand via Suvarnabhumi airport, according to Pol Maj Gen Theeradet, leaving right away.
Pol Col Sanong Saengmanee, commander of the Chana Songkhram police depot, which has jurisdiction over the crime scene, identified the suspected spy as Kimsrin Pich, 24.
Rebels worried
Prior to the Supreme Court’s dissolution of the popular opposition group forward of a 2018 election based on an alleged crime story, Lim Kimya was a part of the Cambodian National Rescue Party. The organization claimed that the allegations were made by the decision Thai Women’s Party led by Hun Sen.
Social dissidents from local authoritarian nations are a regular visitor to Bangkok, and they are also becoming a staging ground for forced removals and deportations that human rights groups claim border on illegality.
Seven Cambodians who were registered with the UN refugee agency were violently sent residence by Thai officials in November. Six of the seven, including one who was a kid, were later charged with treason in a Vietnamese court.
In recent months, hundreds of Thai rebels have flocked to Thailand, but they have been spooked by the forced persecution and Lim Kimya’s murder.
Khem Monykosal, 52, fled oppression in Cambodia two years ago. He registered with the UN immigrant company, but he has hardly ever left the room where he is sheltering in Thailand, he told The New York Times. He was now worried about the possibility of social killings. Next came Lim Kimya’s shooting.
” As an asylum-seeker in Thailand, I am very concerned about my safety”, he said. ” There are planned narratives to kill”.
Following his arrest, alleged hunter Ekalak Paenoi, 41, is seen in Battambang on Wednesday night. ( Police photo )
Authorities say Kimsrin Pich, a Thai regional, was the observer who pointed out Lim Kimya for his killer. ( Police photo )