Touch Voeun, a Sam Rainsy Party commune candidate slain last week in Siem Riep province, was killed over a personal dispute, not politics, authorities said Sunday.
But independent investigations are under way, with representatives of the Sam Rainsy Party and human rights groups expressing disbelief in the police findings.
Siem Reap Chief of Serious Crime Ou Em said that his preliminary investigation revealed that Touch Voeun, 54, was involved in a dispute with people in Tapeum village, Kompong Kdei commune, and had been accused of being a sorcerer.
“He is not a popular candidate here. According to our initial report, this was half a personal dispute,” Ou Em said, adding that the other half was sorcery.
Officers had located some witnesses, but were still determining the cause of the dispute, he said.
Touch Voeun was sleeping when two unidentified men entered his house at about 11:30 pm Thursday and opened fire. A bullet entered his abdomen and exited above his left shoulder, police said.
He died later that night. He was the third commune candidate—the second from the Sam Rainsy Party—shot to death in the last two months. Official investigations have blamed both incidents on personal disputes.
“We have a handful of cases now with political implications. This is for sure not encouraging for the international community to financially support the commune elections,” one rights worker said.
Adhoc Director Thun Saray said the group’s sub-action committee believed the killing was politically motivated, after an initial report found no evidence that Touch Voeun had a dispute with villagers.
“He was very gentle and he was not a sorcerer,” Thun Saray said.
Kek Galabru, director of the human rights group Licadho, had not heard from her group’s investigators, but discounted the authorities’ fast report, saying accusations of sorcery and personal disputes have become predictable.
“It means it’s not a serious investigation,” she said.
“It’s laughable to hear the same words from them,” said Sam Rainsy Party Secretary-General Eng Chhay Eang, adding that only Sam Rainsy Party and Funcinpec candidates seem to be accused of sorcery.
Eng Chhay Eang said he believed Touch Voeun’s death was a politically motivated attempt to “intimidate and suppress” the party’s candidates.
US Ambassador Kent Wiedemann, who has had several conversations with Prime Minister Hun Sen about political violence, said he was waiting for official results, but was concerned about the shooting.
“As the prime minister stated, no political violence is tolerable, and we expect him to live by that public statement,” the ambassador said, adding that there would be “consequences” if the killing proves to be politically motivated.
