{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2019}} {{Infobox criminal | name = Sam Bith | other names = | image = | birth_name = Sam Bith | birth_date = May 1, 1933 | birth_place = Cambodia | death_date = February 15, 2008 | death_place = Cambodia | conviction = kidnapping, conspiring in premeditated murder, terrorism and robbery }} '''Sam Bith''' (May 1, 1933 – February 15, 2008) was a Cambodian guerrilla commander, convicted murderer for Khmer Rouge, and former deputy to its military head Ta Mok.
On July 26, 1994, Bith and his fleet of rebels ambushed a train carrying the three backpackers – Australian David Wilson, Briton Mark Slater and Frenchman Jean-Michel Braquet,<ref name=leg>{{cite news |title=Sam Bith |url=http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=385&sid=1346230 |agency=Associated Press |date=February 16, 2008 |accessdate=16 February 2008 |archive-date=September 13, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050913140456/http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=385&sid=1346230 |url-status=dead }}</ref> with at least ten Cambodians being killed in the attack itself.<ref name=bbc>{{cite news |title=Khmer Rouge commander charged |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2003754.stm |work= BBC News |date=May 23, 2002 |access-date=16 February 2008}}</ref> The group held the three foreigners and several Cambodians under "miserable conditions" at Vine Mountain rebel base in the southern Cambodian province of Kampot.<ref name=leg/><ref name=bbc/> They were killed three months after the attack when government-backed negotiations for their release and the $150,000 ransom failed.<ref name=leg/>
Fellow rebel Nuon Paet was sentenced to life in prison for his role in it in June 1999.<ref name=bbc/> In his trial, he testified against Bith, claiming that Bith, his superior officer, ordered them killed.<ref name=bbc/> By the time the manhunt began that same year Bith was a general in the Royal Cambodian Army after defecting from the Khmer Rouge in 1996.<ref name=bbc/>
Bith was found following the publication in a Thai newspaper of reports of his lavish home in Pailin in western Cambodia.<ref name=bbc/> He was charged with kidnapping, conspiring in premeditated murder, terrorism and robbery in December 2002 and was sentenced to life in prison.<ref name=leg/><ref name=bbc/> Bith pleaded innocent to those charges, claiming in court he had already been relieved of his position as a regional commander by Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot several weeks before the train ambush.<ref name=leg/> He had been suffering from health problems the day before his arrest and two doctors had been assigned to look over him.<ref name=bbc/>
Bith died on February 15, 2008, aged 74.<ref name=leg/> While no official cause of death has been given, his wife Khem Ri said he had been "very sick" with diabetes and high blood pressure and had been taken to Calmette Hospital ten days beforehand.<ref name=leg/> Sam Bith is buried in a Chinese cemetery in Battambang, in accordance with his Sino-Khmer roots.<ref name=leg/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sam, Bith}} Category:1930s births Category:2008 deaths Category:Cambodian military personnel Category:Cambodian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Cambodia Category:Cambodian people of Chinese descent Category:Cambodian people who died in prison custody Category:Prisoners who died in Cambodian detention Category:Cambodian people convicted of murder Category:People convicted of murder by Cambodia Category:Communist Party of Kampuchea politicians