ACTOR’S FAMILY CALL FOR DEATH INVESTIGATION TO BE REOPENED=20
Oscar winner HAING NGOR’s family and friends are urging Los Angeles polic= e to re-open their investigation into the death of THE KILLING FIELDS sta= r - because they believe his slaying was related to his role in the film.
The Cambodian was shot and killed in 1996 in Los Angeles and his death = was ruled a gang-related murder.
Police officials closed the investigation after arresting three members= of an Asian-American gang and charging them with the murder.
But, 14 years after the tragedy, Ngor’s family want the case re-opened = because they believe a leading member of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge had order= ed a hit on the actor, who was an outspoken critic of dictator Pol Pot.
The Los Angeles Police Department launched an international investigati= on regarding the theory, but ruled Ngor was killed during a random street= robbery.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the testimony of a former Khmer Rou= ge prison chief last year (09) sparked requests for a reinvestigation int= o the murder.
Kang Kek Ieu told a United Nations tribunal in Phnom Penh that Pol Pot = and his supporters were behind the incident, explaining, "Haing Ngor was = killed because he appeared in the film The Killing Fields." The slain actor’s cousin, Thommy Nou, tells the Times, "I believe this = 100 per cent. This was a homicide set up by the communists or possibly th= e Khmer Rouge. That=E2=80=99s what I had thought all along." But police officials who worked the case insist they found no links to = tie the murder to the Khmer Rouge and maintain Ngor was killed by teenage= members of the Oriental Lazy Boyz.
During the 1998 trial, prosecutor Craig Hum argued the trio robbed Ngor= for money to buy cocaine and shot him after he refused to part with a lo= cket because it held the photo of his dead wife.
Speaking to the Times, Hum admits he’s skeptical about the internationa= l hit theory: "I=E2=80=99m sure that people in the regime weren=E2=80=99t= sorry to see him go, but I=E2=80=99m not sure if that equates to having = a prominent critic murdered in the U.S."
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