Phnom Penh - A joint inquiry by Cambodian police and the US
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into the murder of an
opposition journalist and his son is investigating whether the son
and not his father was the real target, a senior official said
Wednesday.
Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said the investigation
had so far turned up few leads in the July 11 murders and police were
ruling out nothing.
International condemnation followed the double shooting of
47-year-old Khim Sambo, a journalist for the Moneaksekar Khmer
newspaper, which supports the opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), and
his son Khat Sarinpheata, 19, a university student, on a busy street
in the capital.
The government's questionable human rights record and the
proximity of the killing to national elections two weeks later led
the SRP and rights groups, including New York-based Human Rights
Watch, to point the finger at the government and demand answers.
'We are still wondering if this is a case of politics or not,'
Sopheak said. 'Why would the killers have turned back after killing
the father and then shoot the son if they only wanted to kill the
journalist? We want to solve this as soon as possible.'
Witnesses said two men on a motorbike wearing baseball caps pulled
up to the pair at about 7:30 pm and shot Sambo at close range before
speeding away, only to return within seconds and shoot the previously
unscathed son.
The FBI investigated a 1997 grenade attack on an opposition rally
led by Sam Rainsy in which at least a dozen people were killed and
opposition leader Rainsy sustained minor injuries.
The report has never been released, despite SRP demands, and were
the culprits not identified.
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