#Thailand - Eight get lengthy prison terms over Mae Hong Son prostitution racket

The Ratchadaphisek Criminal Court on Wednesday found eight defendants guilty of human trafficking, underage prostitution and other charges linked to the “owl tattoo” prostitution racket in Mae Hong Son and sentenced them to imprisonments ranging from eight to 320 years. 

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 Three procurers received over 100 years behind bars – first defendant Piyawan Sukmak, 27, got a 167-year jail term, second defendant Piyathas Parpthiensuwan, 31, got a 176-year jail term and third defendant former cop Pol Senior Sgt-Major Yutthachai Thongchat, 43, got a 320-year jail term. 

 The three, however, would serve only 50 years behind bars each as the law limits maximum penalty in criminal cases to 50 years in prison.

The fourth defendant Mongkol Kiatpakdipong, 31, was given 19 years, the fifth defendant Pattamaporn In-kaew, 32, got 12 years, the sixth defendant Kanokwan Rattanapakdi, 23, got eight years, the seventh defendant Kwanhathai Reuk-Udom, 40, got 32 years and the eighth defendant Kalaya Wutthikhun, 41, got 36 years.

The eight convicts later sought release on bail pending their appeal to the upper court. During the trial, three of the suspects – Piyawan, Piyathas and Yutthachai – were denied bail and were detained at remand facilities, while the others got bail.

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Yutthachai had worked at the Nam Piang Din Police Station until the scandal broke last year, following which he was sacked along with eight other cops in the province who were put under serious disciplinary investigation after being implicated as customers of underage prostitution services. 

The case came to light because the 43-year-old mother of one of the teenage victims filed a police complaint. She remained persistent even when there was a lack of progress in the investigations for six months. She then exposed the prostitution racket to the media. 

Many state officials were subsequently implicated for buying sex services from the racket’s girls, many of whom reportedly had owl identification tattoos on the chest. 

Provincial Governor Suebsak Iamvijarn, who was transferred to an inactive post in Bangkok pending a probe result into the allegation, was later reinstated after he was cleared of any wrongdoing. According to police, one of five Nonthaburi politicians who allegedly bought sex from the girls had drunkenly claimed to be Suebsak.

Source - TheNation

 

#Thailand - Criminal Court ruling today in major human-trafficking case

The Criminal Court on Wednesday will rule on a major human-trafficking case involving as many as 103 defendants, including a senior military officer, Manas Kongpan.

The ruling is due to be delivered at 8.30am.

The trial began in 2015 as suspected syndicates were accused of trafficking migrants, notably ethnic Rohingya, to Thailand and via the Kingdom to other destinations.

Thai and Myanmar citizens were arrested that year following the discovery of a mass grave in jungle shelters in the border district of Sadao, in Songkhla province, used by traffickers to hold the migrants.

Investigations indicated a number of security officials as well as Thai and Myanmar civilians had taken the migrants – originally from Bangladesh and western Myanmar – to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The case attracted international attention to the regional migrant crisis across the Indian Ocean, and countries were criticized for ignoring the problem.

Thailand was then downgraded to the lowest level – Tier 3 – in the US State Department’s “Trafficking in Persons” (TIP) report in both 2014 and 2015.

The Thai government has since taken a number of measures, including amendment of its trafficking law and the creation of a special division in the Criminal Court to handle human-trafficking cases in particular.

Wednesday’s ruling is the first such case for the new division.

Thailand, meanwhile, remains on the Watch List in Washington’s annual TIP report.

Source - TheNation

#Thailand - Prostitution bust ‘requires Article 44’

Police escort five suspects linked to the Mae Hong Son |prostitution scandal from Bangkok’s Thung Song Hong Police Station to Ratchadapisek Criminal Court to apply for the first 12-day detention period yesterday morning.

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District chiefs fear offical meddling in probe

THE FEDERATION of Assistant District Chiefs of Thailand filed a petition at Government House yesterday for Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha to use his absolute power under Article 44 of the interim constitution to deal with civil servants involved in the Mae Hong Son underage prostitution scandal.

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The group, led by federation chairman Boonyarit Nipawanit, claimed that the use of normal laws would cause delays and might risk interference by local influential figures. He urged authorities to punish supervisors who were guilty of dereliction of duty or negligence allowing such crimes to take place, as well as officials directly involved in the racket or patronising underage prostitutes. They said that if the case was tackled seriously it could lead to the end of the unofficial tradition of sex services being offered to senior officials. Lawyer Kerdpol Kaewkerd, who represented victims of the prostitution ring and accompanied Boonyarit yesterday, said the government should expedite legal action in the case as there had been attempts to interfere with the work of police investigators by trying to tamper with evidence and witnesses who were not being provided protection. 

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 Kerdpol said that if the investigation was prolonged the victims might lose interest in fighting the case as they would feel that they would not receive justice.

Meanwhile, Phrae deputy governor Wirun Panthewee said he had been at a party to welcome Suebsak Iamwichan last year as he took his position as Mae Hong Son governor, adding the festivities were normal without any suspicious activity. 

Suebsak is being questioned by an Interior Ministry disciplinary panel over his alleged involvement in the case although he maintains that he was innocent. 

Wirun urged the public to not spread rumours about Mae Hong Son people or treat accused officials including Suebsak unfairly unless they are proven guilty. 

Meanwhile, five human-trafficking suspects allegedly involved in the prostitution ring were brought to Bangkok’s Ratchadaphisek Criminal Court yesterday to apply for their first 12-day detention period pending police investigation. 

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 Police opposed their release on bail on the grounds that the case carried a heavy punishment and there was a risk of them tampering with evidence and witnesses.

Anti-Human Trafficking Division (AHTD) chief Pol Maj Gen Kornchai Klayklueng told a yesterday press conference that he believed all involved in human trafficking crime in the ring were already identified – as per the teenage girl’s mother’s testimony that the racket had eight teams under suspect Pol Senior Sgt Major Yutthachai Thongchat. 

Kornchai said local police had 36 complaints and arrested three police officers wanted for the charge of gang rape of a minor, while AHTD had one case with eight suspects, all in custody. He affirmed police would check all points including the identity and involvement of a man called Uncle Pan whose Line chat leakage led to the complaint. 

He said the lie detection device use on victims or suspects were to show sincerity and required them to sign consents first. 

To a witness’s claim a man resembled governor took a girl under 18 to have sex on the night of welcoming party last year, he said it was a heresy, not a direct testimony of the girl in question hence the girl should file the complaint to have police probed it.

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Scrutiny of Mae Hong Son suspects 
 Group 1 
The three suspects in custody for whom a court issued arrest warrants on charges including conspiracy to commit human trafficking to benefit from prostitution. They include Pol Senior Sgt-Major Yutthachai Thongchat of Mae Hong Son’s Nam Piang Din Police Station, who was dismissed from the civil service.
Group 2
The five suspects in custody on charges including conspiracy to commit human trafficking to benefit from prostitution. They are one 30-year-old man and four women aged from 22 to 40.
Group 3
Three police officer suspects attached to Kong Koi police station in Mae Hong Son’s Sop Moei district facing charges of gang rape of a minor linked to the prostitution ring. They have also been dismissed from the civil service due to the alleged breach of discipline.
Group 4 
The five police suspects and one public school teacher accused of buying sex services from the prostitution ring. Previous police applications for arrest warrants were turned down twice on the grounds that they were civil servants with known addresses and were not a flight risk. The court suggested that summonses be issued for them instead.
Group 5
Police are trying to locate six men, including two military officers, a public health official and a district highway official, who are accused of buying sexual services from the prostitution ring.
Persons of interest
Mae Hong Song governor Suebsak Iamwichan is being questioned by an Interior Ministry panel over his alleged involvement. 
The mother of one of the victims this week has also filed a complaint with the Crime Suppression Division against Mae Hong Song police chief Pol Maj-General Preecha imonchaijit, Muang Mae Hong Son precinct superintendent Somkiat Sawngsuk and other officers who served on a disciplinary panel reviewing Yutthachai’s behaviour. 
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Source - TheNation
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Death penalty upheld in British backpacker case.

‘solid’ evidence two myanmar men killed britons on Koh Tao, rules Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal has upheld the death penalty against two Myanmar migrant workers for one of the most shocking crimes in Thailand’s history – the violent murders of two British backpackers on the resort island of Koh Tao.
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David Miller, 24, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, were fatally beaten on the beach on September 15, 2014. Witheridge was also raped.
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The gruesome crime made headlines in Thailand and across the world.
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Police arrested defendant Zaw Lin on Koh Tao – a part of Surat Thani province – about two weeks after the crime took place. Wai Phyo (Win Zaw Tun), the second defendant, was later arrested at a pier in Surat Thani town.
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The two defendants pled innocent and insisted that their initial confessions had been made under duress. Their legal team also tried to rebut evidence submitted by the plaintiff.
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The Criminal Court, however, ruled in December 2015 that there was sufficient evidence against the two migrant workers, convicting and sentencing them to death.
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After reviewing the evidence, the Court of Appeal concluded the defendants were guilty beyond doubt.
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“All items of evidence offered by the plaintiffs are reasonably linked and solid. The ruling is not made on any single piece of evidence but as a whole,” the court said.
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The court dismissed as unreasonable the defendants’ complaint that investigators had failed to record every step of the process in gathering evidence. The defendants argued that police did not have pictures of collecting samples from the female victim. “It’s not possible to take pictures of every step taken in a long process,” the court ruled.
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Nakhon Chomphuchat, a lawyer for the defendants, said they would now file a petition the Supreme Court.
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Both defendants are being held at the Bang Kwang Central Prison in Nonthaburi province.

They were informed of the Appeal Court’s ruling on February 23 at Nonthaburi Provincial Court, while the verdict was read out officially for the plaintiffs to hear at Samui Provincial Court yesterday, Nakhon said.
Source: TheNation