Showing posts with label Arrest Warrants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arrest Warrants. Show all posts

Thursday 27 April 2017

#Thailand - Mae Hong Son in the spotlights of child prostitution

.

More arrest warrants sought in child prostitution ring in Mae Hong Son

ANTI-HUMAN trafficking police will seek arrest warrants for at least two more persons in connection with the alleged prostitution of minors in Mae Hong Son.

Kornchai Klayklueng, commander of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division, declined to reveal the names of the suspects yesterday, saying his force would not spare criminals no matter how influential they were.
The mother of one of the victims has claimed that several government officials, including a police deputy superintendent and Mae Hong Song Governor Suebsak Iamwichan, were customers of the ring.
“Her latest interviews with media include new information, particularly the parts regarding alleged sex buyers. I ordered her interviews transcribed,” Kornchai said.
Three alleged procurers have already been charged with human trafficking. They are Pol Senior Sgt-Major Yutthachai Thongchat, who worked at the Nam Piang Din Police Station in Mae Hong Son until the scandal broke, Piyawan Sukma and Piyathas Parpthiensuwan.
Pol Colonel Montri Baothog, a superintendent at the anti-trafficking unit, said there was clear evidence against these three suspects.
He downplayed concerns that one mother had deliberately exposed the ring to hurt three police with whom she had a conflict.
“We have not yet looked into those rumours. But we have handled the case based on evidence,” he said.
Deputy national police Commissioner-General Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said he had already ordered a disciplinary inquiry into the three implicated police.
“There is enough evidence to launch a probe as of now, but not yet to seek arrest warrants,” he said.
 Pol Maj-General Panudej Boonruang, acting deputy Provincial Police Region 5 chief, said an investigation was underway to determine whether this case involved more victims and patrons. The mother, who used to work as a police informant, firmly pointed her finger at Suebsak, saying her daughter was forced into providing sex to this much older man.
.
 .
The three alleged victims, now aged 17-19, were dragged into the flesh trade in late 2013 or early 2014.
The Interior Ministry has launched an investigation into Suebsak who has denied any wrongdoing. “I don’t drink or smoke. I don’t visit night entertainment venues either,” Suebsak said. A source said Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda had phoned the Mae Hong Son governor and rebuked him over the alleged human trade controversy in the northern border province.
“I have asked the Mae Hong Son governor about this. I told him that as the governor he has to know what’s going on in his province.
“He can’t say he doesn’t know. It is just a small province and the governor has to know everything,” Anupong was quoted as saying.
He was speaking at a weekly meeting of senior Interior Ministry officials, according to the source.
The mother who is seeking justice for the girls lured into prostitution said there were 11 sex-worker procurement rings in Mae Hong Son.
Atchariya Ruangrattanapong, president of the Help Crime Victim Club, dismissed reports that his club had abandoned the mother after accepting Bt15,000 from her.
“It’s not true. We have helped follow up her case all along. Besides, the Bt15,000 that she gave to the club was for travel expenses that the club’s team had incurred for their trip to pursue the case in Mae Hong Son,” he said.
During the trip to Mae Hong Son, the team talked to several local officials and members of local non-governmental organisations while gathering evidence strongly suggesting that Yutthachai was the head of a procurement ring, he said.
.
SOURCE - THE NATION



Tuesday 1 September 2015

#Bangkok, Wanted woman 'in Turkey'

x
A Thai Muslim woman claiming to be the wanted bomb suspect told reporters by phone she is in Turkey, as police track the two Bangkok bombers to Cambodia.

THE hunt for those behind the Erawan Shrine bomThai woman flew out of Phuket in July; bomb materials found in flat she rented, police say; relative claims she will return to deny any role in blasts.


However, police have been unable to clearly pinpoint the motive for Bangkok's worst bomb attack. They have come up with the theory that the culprits may have been human smugglers angered by the government's crackdown on the illegal trade, a source familiar with the ongoing investigation said yesterday.

Previously, possible suspects included political rivals, organised criminal gangs, Islamic militants, southern insurgents and sympathisers of Uighur refugees.

Four arrest warrants have so far been issued in connection with the two blasts - the male shrine bomber seen wearing a yellow shirt and a man in a blue shirt who dropped an explosive device at Sathorn pier. That device exploded the day after the shrine attack but no one was injured.

Meanwhile, police investigators have found footage from closed-circuit TV cameras near Hua Lamphong Railway Station that shows the shrine bomber receiving a backpack similar to one used in the bombing from a man in a white shirt, another police source said.

Min Buri Provincial Court yesterday granted a police request to issue arrest warrants for Phang Nga resident Wanna Suansan, 26, who is also known by the Muslim name Maisaloh, and a man of an unspecified nationality.

Police said Wanna rented an apartment in Min Buri in eastern Bangkok for the man.

A sketch of the unidentified man, who looks to be a foreigner, was issued along with the arrest warrant.

The wanted woman left Thailand on July 1 from Phuket airport for Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, according to a police source. Video footage showed her with a man who looks like the man in the police sketch. However, there is no immigration record of him leaving Thailand.

A search of Wanna's rented room found gunpowder, urea fertiliser and other bomb-making materials, Royal Thai Police spokesman Lt-General Prawut Thavornsiri said.

Police searched her house in Phang Nga yesterday afternoon. A relative of Wanna at the house said she was in Turkey, the country of her husband.

The relative said Wanna had insisted she was not involved with the blasts and would come back soon to turn herself in to police.

But Prawut said: "We are confident that these two people are in the same group of people responsible for the blasts at the Ratchaprasong intersection and the Sathon pier."

He said more arrest warrants would be issued soon but declined elaborate.

The foreigner of unknown nationality arrested on Saturday at an apartment in Nong Chok is still denying involvement in the blasts, a source said. However, substances found on his clothes were similar to what was used in the bombs.

Police will conduct a DNA test in a bid to confirm his link with the blasts, the source added.

The man, who held a fake Turkish passport, is being detained at the 11th Military Circle in Bangkok's Dusit district, where security has been increased. No media are allowed to take photographs or do video recordings at the agency.

Prawut dismissed a report that police were detaining four Palestinians in connection with the investigation. But he could not confirm or deny they were being detained by the military.

The spokesman said police were conducting searches in many locations but declined to discuss the operation in detail. He urged owners of apartment buildings with foreign tenants to prepare copies of CCTV recordings of the tenants for police examination.

National police chief General Somyot Poompanmuang met Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha at Government House yesterday to report on progress in the investigation. The PM told reporters afterwards that the mass media should avoid making wild speculation about the case or they could further complicate the probe.

In the government's newsletter for September 1 (today), General Prayut wrote: "I and all the Cabinet members promise that we will do the best of our ability to prevent such an incident from happening again. And we will find all the perpetrators to be punished in accordance with the law."
.
.

Monday 31 August 2015

#Bangkok, Court approves two more arrest warrants


The Min Buri Court Monday approved two more arrest warrants for a Thai woman and a foreigner suspected of involvement in the Erawan Shrine bombing, Police spokesman Pol Lt Gen Prawut Thawornsiri said.
Prawut said the court approved an arrest warrant for Wanna Suansan who rented an apartment room in Min Buri. The court also approved an arrest warrant for the second foreigner who was seen living in the room rented by Wanna.

Police found fertiliser and explosive that could be used to make bombs inside Wanna's rented room, the spokesman added.

Shortly after the August 17 blast that killed 20 people and injured more than 100 others, the court approved an arrest warrant for a foreigner who was seen on CCTVS placing a backpack in the compound of the shrine before the bomb went off.

On Saturday, police arrested a foreigner at an apartment in Bangkok's Nong Chok district. Police refused to say whether the suspect was the alleged bomber wanted in the first arrest warrant.

Prawut said Monday that the arrested suspect was involved with the Ratchaprasong and Sathorn pier bombings but his nationality was still not clear.

The spokesman said police are also seeking warrants for arrest of several more suspects.
Source: The Nation 
.
.