Authorities in Cambodia on Saturday handed over a Thai ex-marine accused of shooting a former Cambodian opposition MP to death in Bangkok earlier this week.
“The suspect confessed to the crime and to being the person in the arrest warrant,” Pol Gen Somprasong Yentuam, assistant national police chief, told reporters. “He looked stressed.”
Ekkalak Phaenoi, also known as “Sergeant Em”, was taken from a detention facility in Phnom Penh at about 11am to the Khlong Luek border checkpoint in Aranyaprathet district of Sa Kaeo province, where Cambodian officials handed him over to their Thai counterparts.
Ekkalak, 41, fled across the border after shooting Lim Kimya on Tuesday evening. He was arrested in Battambang, Cambodia, on Wednesday evening.
Pol Gen Somprasong and a team of investigators flew to Sa Kaeo by helicopter to pick up the suspect on Saturday.
Upon arrival in Bangkok, the suspect was escorted by officers from the Arintharat special task force to the Chana Songkhram police station, which has jurisdiction over the area where the crime occurred.
The Criminal Court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for the hitman responsible for the attack in a crowded area near Wat Bowonniwet Vihara in Phra Nakhon district.
“I confess that I did wrong,” Ekkalak told to police and reporters after being charged with premeditated murder and unauthorised gun ownership.
Lim Kimya, 73, arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday evening after travelling by bus from Siem Reap, Cambodia. He was shot dead in front of his wife and brother by a waiting gunman who fired three shots.
Pol Lt Gen Somprasong said an arrest warrant for a Cambodian accomplice who is believed to have acted as a spotter for the assassin has also been issued.
The victim was a member of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, a popular opposition group that was dissolved by a court over an alleged treason plot ahead of a 2018 election. The party dismissed the alleged plot as a fabrication by the Hun Sen regime.
A Cambodian government spokesman denied claims by some opposition activists of official involvement in the slaying.
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Ekkalak Phaenoi, 41, a former Thai marine, is seen following his arrest on Wednesday in Cambodia.