A Cambodian man wanted by Thai police in connection to the murder of a former Cambodian opposition lawmaker in Bangkok last week is the brother of a politician who initiated legal proceedings that led to the dissolution of the country’s main opposition party in 2017, according to Radio Free Asia.
The suspect, identified as Pich Kimsrin, is believed to be the so-called “spotter” in the murder of Lim Kimya, a former MP of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).
CCTV footage shows who Thai police believe to be Pich Kimsrin at the scene of the murder but his current whereabouts are unknown and it is unclear if Cambodian officials have initiated an investigation into him.
Authorities have told RFA they will investigate the case only following a request from their Thai counterparts.
The alleged gunman, Ekaluck Paenoi, a former Thai marine, was arrested on Wednesday in Cambodia’s Battambang province and was extradited to Thailand on Saturday.
A review of publicly available information by RFA reveals that Pich Kimsrin was the deputy head of the administration running the Phsar Kandal market in Phnom Penh, according to a since-deleted post on the market’s Facebook page.
It said one of Pich Kimsrin’s Facebook accounts shows that he started his career as a journalist for a pro-government news outlet called Fast News Daily, where he wrote sports and entertainment stories that have since been deleted from the news site.
Pich Kimsrin’s Facebook page displayed reports from the Fast News Daily’s Facebook account, posts about news in Phnom Penh, as well as photos of his own press pass.
However, it is his apparent familial links that reveal him to be connected to a party that has long had the CNRP in its crosshairs.
Information obtained by RFA and a sweep of social media show multiple links between Pich Kimsrin and Pich Sros, who is the president of the Cambodian Youth Party, or CYP.
Pich Kimsrin’s birth certificate, which RFA obtained but cannot independently be verified and which has been widely circulated online, lists “Pich Neng” and “Sieng Chinlai” as his parents and Kampong Cham as province of birth.
The same parents and place of birth are listed on a university certificate of Pich Sros that was published on Fast News Daily.
In a 2015 picture taken at a wedding and posted on their father’s Facebook page, a young Pich Kimsrin sits front and center by Pich Neng’s knees surrounded by well-placed family members.
Many are linked to Pich Sros’s CYP or work for government affiliated organisations like the Cambodian Red Cross, an aid organization headed by former first lady Bun Rany which had been criticized by Lim Kimya, among others, for politicization.
Pich Sros, the CYP president whose 2017 filing led to the dissolution of Cambodia’s opposition party, stands smiling in the back.
Both the bride, Yi Ratha, and the groom, Pich Kim Sreang, were listed as 2023 election candidates for the CYP, as was another in the portrait group, Chhuon Limhuot.
Pich Sithan, who stands in front of Pich Sros holding the hand of a baby, appeared as a CYP candidate for the commune election held a year earlier in 2022.
Over the years, most family members shown in the photo have been photographed with Pich Kimsrin, an RFA review of social media found.
However, as news of his alleged involvement in the murder was made public, family members including Pich Kim Sreang, Chhuon Limhuot, Lou Leangseng and Suos Sokna, one by one started locking their accounts.
Fast News Daily, where Pich Kimsrin worked as a young journalist, also appears to be linked to Pich Sros and his party.
The news outlet is registered to Kehaktompor Fast News Daily company, according to the Ministry of Commerce, and with only one listed director, Keo Chan Sophara.
Keo Chan Sophara’s name appears on the Cambodian Youth Party’s 2018 candidate list from Svay Rieng, according to online website Sabay, and as a party commune council candidate from Phnom Penh in 2022, according to Cambodia’s National Election Commission’s online portal.
Founded in 2015 by Pich Sros, the Cambodian Youth Party is one among Cambodia’s numerous small political parties whose names are little known outside the country.
But while it garnered just 1 percent of the most recent vote, the party has played an outsized role in the country’s recent political history.
Following the midnight arrest of Kem Sokha, the former president of the CNRP who was later sentenced to 27 years for treason, Sros and his party were the first to file a complaint to the Supreme Court of Cambodia in September 2017 requesting the dissolution of the party.
Two months later, the CNRP was dissolved by the Supreme Court and 118 members of the party were banned from politics for five years.
