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A Thai court has handed down a sentence to a man to life in prison for killing a well-known political dissident from Cambodia in the Thai capital.

In January, hours after Lim Kimya arrived in the Thai capital with his wife, he was shot dead in a public area by Thai national Ekkalak Paenoi. The perpetrator then fled to Cambodia, where he was arrested and sent back.

The defendant had originally received the death penalty, but that was commuted to a life sentence due to his admission to the murder, the judicial body said on the recent Friday.

The motive for the politician's killing is still unknown - though it has been widely suspected to be a politically driven targeted killing.

Political Background in Cambodia

Opposition politicians and campaigners are often jailed and intimidated in Cambodia, where authorities have minimal acceptance for opposition views.

The deceased, who had citizenship in both Cambodia and France, was a former parliamentarian from the primary opposition group in Cambodia, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

This political party had come close to overthrowing the incumbent government of former leader the previous prime minister in the year 2013.

After the former leader accused the CNRP of treason, the party was banned in 2017 and its members were barred from taking part in political activities.

Cambodian Prime Minister the new leader - who took over from his parent the former PM in 2023 - has rejected claims that the government was involved in Lim's killing.

Particulars of the Case

Surveillance video from the incident month showed Ekkalak stopping his motorcycle, taking off his headgear and strolling calmly across the road before gunfire was heard.

The offender was also convicted of possessing and firing a gun, and ordered to pay around 55,000 US dollars (40,800 British pounds) to the victim's relatives.

The tribunal dismissed a accusation against another defendant - a Thai national charged with driving the killer to the Cambodian border after the shooting - on the basis that he was only a driver who did not know about the murder.

Reactions and Wider Consequences

The legal representative for Lim Kimya's widow told media outlet AFP that she was "probably satisfied" with the court's decision, though she was "still questioning who commissioned the offense".

"She wants authorities to get to the bottom of it."

In the past few years many activists escaping repression in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand have been sent back after requesting asylum, or in some cases have been killed or gone missing.

Human rights groups believe there is an tacit understanding among the four adjacent nations to allow each other's security forces to chase dissidents over the frontier.