Phnom Penh (AFP) - A prominent Cambodian political analyst known for his trenchant criticism of the government was shot dead Sunday morning at a convenience store, police said. The daylight slaying of Kem Ley comes at a time of heightened political tensions between strongman premier Hun Sen and the country's political opposition, who accuse the prime minister of launching a fresh crackdown against them.
Police said Kem Ley, a popular commentator and grassroots campaigner, was gunned down as he drank coffee at a convenience store attached to a gas station in the capital Phnom Penh.
"He was shot dead at a mart just before 9am," Kirt Chantharith, national police spokesman, told AFP.
A suspect was arrested nearby and confessed to killing the analyst over an unpaid debt, Kirt Chantharith said. Cambodia has a long a tragic history of rights and labour advocates being murdered with their killers rarely brought to justice. An AFP photographer at the scene said Kem Ley's body lay in a large pool of blood below a metal table inside the convenience store.
Hundreds of onlookers had gathered as police cordoned off the area. One group of women were in tears. Local media showed pictures of the alleged suspect being taken into custody. He appeared injured with blood running down the left-hand side of his face.
The killing will do little to lower already simmering tensions inside the impoverished Southeast Asian nation, which has been dominated by Hun Sen for the past 31 years in a reign marred by accusations of corruption, electoral fraud and rampant rights abuses. Scores of government critics and rights workers have been arrested in recent months while others have been tied up in ongoing legal cases.
Phay Siphan, a government spokesman, described the assassination as "a vulgar and cruel act that is unacceptable". Britain's ambassador in Phnom Penh Bill Longhurst said the killing was "a serious loss to Cambodia".
Kem Ley was critical of both the government and opposition parties, advocating for a new era of clean politics in a notoriously corrupt nation which is expected to hold a general election in 2018.
