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Media Album |  A Decade Without Truth: Supporters Demand Justice for Kem Ley’s Murder

10 July 2026

More than 200 people, including political party representatives and members of civil society and youth groups, gathered today in central Phnom Penh to commemorate Dr. Kem Ley on the 10th anniversary of his assassination. Supporters congregated outside Caltex Bokor station’s Star Mart where Ley was shot by a gunman, laying flowers and portraits in memoriam of the late activist. His supporters also carried wreaths, images, and banners in Ley’s honour and called for a full and impartial Commission of Inquiry into his untimely death.

A decade ago, on the morning of 10 July 2016, Kem Ley was shot dead while drinking his morning coffee at the Caltex Bokor’s Star Mart. A beloved social activist and commentator, Ley was murdered amid a surge in attacks on human rights defenders and political opposition figures. The investigation into his death has been deemed grossly inadequate, plagued by procedural oversights and systemic failures. For 10 years they have failed to identify any perpetrators beyond the convicted shooter, who claimed he was motivated by unpaid debts, a motive which has been widely refuted by Ley’s supporters and family members.

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