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Sam Bith, 74, who was convicted in 2002 of abducting Briton Mark Slater, Frenchman Jean-Michel Braquet and Australian David Wilson during a train ambush in southern Cambodia, died in a Phnom Penh hospital on Friday.

Sam Bith, who has been in and out of hospital with a variety of illnesses in the past few years, denied any involvement but lost his appeal in 2006. His lawyer had said he was in a Thai hospital at the time of the attack.

In 1994, about a dozen Cambodians died in the ambush on the train. The three backpackers were taken hostage and held in a Khmer Rouge stronghold for about three months before being shot during a rescue attempt by government troops.