Hundreds attend funeral of murdered Cambodian critic

PHNOM PENH — Hundreds of mourners gathered for the funeral on Monday of a Cambodian political commentator gunned down in broad daylight, as fear rippled through the nation’s civil society community. Kem Ley, a prominent political analyst and pro-democracy campaigner, was shot dead on Sunday as he drank coffee at a convenience store attached to a petrol station in the capital Phnom Penh. The slaying of the 46-year-old comes as tensions boil between premier Hun Sen and the country’s political opposition, who accuse the strongman ruler of tying them up in spurious legal cases and deploying thugs to intimidate them. Buddhist monks led a large crowd, many wearing black and white, at a temple in Phnom Penh where Kem Ley’s body was laid out, covered by Cambodia’s national flag and strewn with flowers. One distressed mourner cut his arm with a razor blade in front of the victim’s body, according to an AFP journalist at the scene, in an act of protest at the silencing of the respected analyst. Several women carrying joss sticks wept over the body, their hands clasped together in prayer. A man who identified himself as Chuob Samlab — an unlikely Khmer name which translates as “meet to kill” — is due to appear before a Phnom Penh court later Monday after allegedly confessing to shooting Kem Ley over an unpaid debt. But the suspect’s motive as well as his name have been questioned by activists in a country where the rule of law is threadbare and criticism of powerful figures carries great risk. Authorities also cast doubt on his identity, but they insist they have the right man in custody. “No parents would give their kid that name,” General Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the ministry of interior, said. But based on CCTV footage he is “the real killer,” he added. The brazen murder has rattled the activist community in the capital, where Kem Ley’s advocacy group — ‘Khmer for Khmer’ — did much of its work in support of land and worker rights. — AFP