Cambodian police unsure if shot journalist was killers' target

Aug 6, 2008, 6:52 GMT

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.