A prominent Sam Rainsy Party activist from Kampong Cham province was seriously injured in an ax attack Friday, but party officials were not ready to call the crime an act of political intimidation.
Khan Sophoan, 26, of Memot district, was attacked by one person who hit him with the ax eight times. He remains in a provincial hospital. The victim was reportedly returning from a meeting with district authorities at which he asked for permission to erect a Sam Rainsy Party sign in front of his house.
Sam Rainsy Party Secretary- General Eng Chhay Eang on Saturday called for a swift investigation, saying “intimidations, attacks and killings against political opponents to the ruling party surely [will] give way to future flawed elections.”
But on Sunday, Eng Chhay Eang said it was not yet clear to him whether the attack concerned a political issue or a personal problem. “I know that he is a great person for the Sam Rainsy Party in Kampong Cham,” Eng Chhay Eang said.
Any attack on politically active people raises concern with commune elections expected next year. Prospective Funcinpec candidate Pak Chhoeun and his wife were murdered in Kampot province on June 3, in what some observers say was a case of political intimidation.
