Thousands in funeral march for slain Cambodia activist Kem Ley
Leading government critic was fatally shot on July 10 in an attack that raised suspicion of a political conspiracy
Tens of thousands of Cambodians poured onto the streets of Phnom Penh Sunday for the funeral procession of a prominent political analyst murdered in a brazen daylight shooting that shocked the Southeast Asian nation.
Kem Ley, a popular pro-democracy voice and grassroots rights activist, was shot dead two Sundays ago while drinking coffee outside a petrol station in the capital.
The murder sent jitters across a country already brimming with political tension as premier Hun Sen faces accusations of clamping down on critics of his 31-year rule.
On Sunday a massive crowd of mourners, many carrying portraits of Kem Ley, trailed for kilometres behind Buddhist monks and a motorcade carrying the 46-year-old’s body in a transparent casket.
Thousands of others lined the streets to watch the procession, which marked the end of a two-week mourning period that saw scores of people from across the country flock to the Phnom Penh temple where his body had lain.
Sunday’s procession was to deliver the activist’s corpse to his home village some 70 kilometres south of the capital for burial.