Wang Ya Tseng, left, wife of the murdered man, and Lee Yi Cheng, his sister,

mourn at his death

POLICE have arrested one Taiwanese national, Huang Chin Chang, and three Cambodians

in connection with the June 29 killing of 43-year-old Lee Chim Hsin, president of

the Taiwan Business Association in Cambodia (TBAC).

"We are investigating allegations that [Huang] paid $2,000 to hire people to

kill Mr Lee Chim Hsin," Lek Vannak, Deputy Chief of Phnom Penh's Judicial Police,

told the Post on July 6. "We suspect Mr Lee was killed as a result of his efforts

to resolve a business dispute involving Huang and another Taiwanese businessman."

A fifth Cambodian suspect remained at large, police said.

Lee, the Taiwanese owner of the Dai Chin Construction Company, was murdered outside

his Toul Kork district home in a daring daylight shooting by two gunmen on a motorcycle.

Lee's body was returned to Taiwan on June 4 after four days of mourning by the Taiwanese

business community.

The three unidentified Cambodian suspects include a military policeman, a former

military policeman and a Cambodian ethnic Chinese interpreter who is believed to

have negotiated the hit between the two shooters on Hong's behalf.

Police had confiscated two handguns and a motorcycle believed to have been used in

the killing.

The arrests confirm suspicions of both members of the Taiwanese business community

and Toul Kork district police that Lee had been murdered for intervening in a bitter

business dispute between Hong, the owner of the Hong Gwang Company, and Liu Shing

Yi, a former partner in the firm.

The Hong Gwang Company specializes in cement and construction materials.

Lee is reported to have recently bailed Liu out of jail on charges pressed by Hong

that Liu had passed him bad cheques.

"Someone was trying to get Liu, and Lee was trying to protect him," TBAC

member Robin Chang said of the circumstances preceding Lee's death. "Mr Lee

was just trying to do his job."

Liu's son, Liu Chuen Chin, was the sole passenger in Lee's car at the time of his

murder and slightly injured in the attack. Liu Hsing Yi is believed to be in hiding

in fear of his life.

The arrests cap a week of near-frantic concern among Cambodia's Taiwanese business

community about the murder.

A delegation of representatives of Taiwanese Business Associations from Singapore,

Vietnam and Malaysia held a press conference in Phnom Penh on July 1 to urge the

Government to better safeguard the interests of Taiwanese investors in Cambodia.

Meanwhile, Lee's father, sister, and wife, who arrived in Phnom Penh on July 1 to

escort Lee's body's back to Taiwan, reacted angrily to allegations in the Taiwanese

media that Lee was killed as a result of links to Taiwanese underworld elements living

in Cambodia.

"The Taiwanese media have said a lot of terrible, untrue things about my brother

and his activities in Cambodia," Lee's sister, Lee Yi Cheng, told the Post.

"In fact he was a good person who cared deeply for the people of Cambodia."

According to Yang Ching Hai, a Taiwan-based former agent of Taiwan's Ministry of

Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) who has written a pair of popular whistle-blowing

books documenting Taiwanese government links to organized crime, Cambodia justly

deserves a reputation as a haven for Taiwanese underworld figures.

"A lot of gang members have fled to Cambodia due to a crackdown on organized

crime in Taiwan," Yang said.

Before the July 6 arrests, Yang warned that if Cambodian police did not make any

progress in the case, Taiwanese gang members based in Cambodia might seek vigilante

justice.

"If the police can't catch the murderers, certain people will take revenge for

Lee's death," Yang said.

"That's just the way these things are handled in Taiwan."