The wife and youngsters of murdered Cambodian activist Kem Ley have fled abroad to hunt asylum, family friends announced Tuesday, the most recent twist in a murder that has sparked widespread outrage.
Kem Ley, a well-liked pro-democracy voice and civil rights activist, was shot dead on July 10 while drinking coffee outside a gas station within the capital.
The brazen murder sent a wave of fear across a rustic already rife with political tension between influential leader Hun Sen and a resurgent opposition.
Tens of hundreds of Cambodians took part in his funeral march last month, including his wife Bou Rachana, who was heavily pregnant, and their 4 children.
Friends say they left Cambodia fearing for his or her safety.
“[Kem Ley’s wife] and her sons at the moment are in a secure place, they aren’t in Cambodia,” said Tim Malay, head of the Cambodia Youth Network and considered one of the funeral organizers.
However, Buntenh, head of the Independent Monk Network for Social Justice, confirmed their departure.
“On August 28, his family left the country in a safe place,” he said. “They are now in a safe place abroad.”
They each didn’t wish to say where the family had fled to.
A former soldier has been charged with murder, claiming he shot Kem Ley over an unpaid debt.
But suspicions of political assassination remain strong in a rustic where the rule of law is threadbare and critics of the elite are routinely silenced.
Kem Ley, a continuing critic of each Hun Sen and the political opposition, called for a brand new era of unpolluted politics in graft-infested Cambodia.
The frequent radio commentator was also a significant advocate for land and labor rights, traveling throughout the impoverished country to talk on to rural people.
Last month’s funeral march was considered one of the most important public gatherings in Cambodia lately and showed how moving the murder was.
Shortly before his death, Kem Ley gave a lengthy radio interview hailing a report detailing the wealth amassed by Hun Sen and his family during his thirty years in power.
Hun Sen ordered a radical investigation into the murder and urged people not to show the case right into a “political act.”
