{"id":26768,"date":"2016-07-10T05:45:09","date_gmt":"2016-07-10T05:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/kem-ley-government-critic-shot-dead-in-cambodia\/"},"modified":"2016-07-10T05:45:06","modified_gmt":"2016-07-10T05:45:06","slug":"kem-ley-government-critic-shot-dead-in-cambodia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/kem-ley-government-critic-shot-dead-in-cambodia\/","title":{"rendered":"Kem Ley: Government critic shot dead in Cambodia"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Killing comes as opposition accuses Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government of launching a fresh crackdown against them.}<\/p>\n

A prominent Cambodian political analyst known for his criticism of the government has been shot dead at a cafe in the capital Phnom Penh, police said.<\/p>\n

The killing of Kem Ley on Sunday comes at a time of heightened political tensions between Prime Minister Hun Sen and the opposition, who accuse him of pursuing a fresh crackdown against them.<\/p>\n

Police said Kem Ley, a popular commentator and grassroots campaigner, was gunned down as he drank coffee at a shop attached to a petrol station. <\/p>\n

“He was shot dead at a mart just before 9am,” Kirt Chantharith, national police spokesman, told the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n

A suspect was arrested nearby and confessed to killing the analyst over an unpaid debt, Kirt Chantharith said.<\/p>\n

“But we don’t believe him yet. We are working on this case,” he said.<\/p>\n

Kem Ley was critical of both the government and opposition parties, advocating for a new era of clean politics in Cambodia, which is expected to hold a general election in 2018. <\/p>\n

But the bulk of his criticism was aimed at Hun Sen’s ruling party.<\/p>\n

As news of Kem Ley’s murder spread on social media, hundreds of Cambodians descended upon the Caltex station.<\/p>\n

Ky Sour, a local businessman, said the crowd had gathered because they were “heartbroken” over Kem Ley’s death, but also because they did not “trust the police”. <\/p>\n

“They suspect the police will do something to hide the evidence [if they don’t watch],” Ky Sour told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

“This is the same pattern so everyone knows who is behind it. People who have no power cannot do like that. This is the face of dictatorship.”<\/p>\n

A factory worker at the scene, who asked not to be named citing safety concerns, said “sometimes we cannot talk about what we think about the government.<\/p>\n

“We close our mouths and discuss with our family or close friends only.”<\/p>\n

Cambodia has a history of rights and labour advocates being murdered with killers rarely brought to justice.<\/p>\n

Kem Ley’s murder will likely exacerbate tensions in the Southeast Asian nation, which has been dominated by Hun Sen for the past 31 years in a reign marked by accusations of corruption, electoral fraud and rights abuses.<\/p>\n

Scores of government critics and rights workers have been arrested in recent months while others have been tied up in ongoing legal cases.<\/p>\n

The prime minister, a former army commander who defected from the Khmer Rouge, has held power alongside a small but powerful group of political allies who have become enormously wealthy.<\/p>\n

A report published by Global Witness last week detailed how Hun Sen’s family had amassed a multi-million-dollar business empire spanning the country’s most lucrative sectors during his rule.<\/p>\n

\"Hundreds<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Killing comes as opposition accuses Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government of launching a fresh crackdown against them.} A prominent Cambodian political analyst known for his criticism of the government has been shot dead at a cafe in the capital Phnom Penh, police said. The killing of Kem Ley on Sunday comes at a time of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-26768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26768\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26768"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=26768"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=26768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}