Preah Sihanouk police on Sunday arrested a Spanish national suspected of being involved in the murder and dismemberment of a Spanish businessman in Thailand last month.

The suspect, 37-year-old Artur Segarra Princep, was busted on Sunday evening while hiding out in a pub called Happy in Commune 2.

He was later handed over to Thai police in the eastern Thai province of Trat.

Thai police said Segurra would be sent to Bangkok for interrogation. If charged and convicted, Segurra could face the death penalty.

“The arrest of the above suspect was made after the immediate request for intervention from Thai Immigration Police to the Immigration Police of Cambodia,” Chuon Narin, the provincial police chief, said yesterday morning.

Pieces of the Spanish businessman, named as David Bernat, were recovered from Bangkok’s main river, the Chao Praya, last month. Police found a transfer of more than $1 million from Bernat’s account, suggesting the victim was kidnapped, forced to make the transfer, then killed.

Last week, police fingered Segarra as a chief suspect, adding that he may have worked with Thai accomplices.

Cambodian police have also in recent months returned one of the alleged perpetrators of last summer’s Bangkok bombing and an Australian wanted for his alleged involvement in the murder of a former Hells Angels member in Pattaya.

Additional reporting by AFP