Thailand Death Penality News

[turboprinz]

A man sentenced to death for killing five
May 29, 2012 6:01 pm

Bangkok's Ratchadaphisek Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced a man to death and three others to life for their involvement in the 2009 armed robbery and murders of a Bang Kapi furniture-factory owner, his wife, daughter, son and housemaid.

The four men, Wanchai Anpan, 61, Parithat Numnoi, 55, Tharayuth Saensuk, 50, and Amnat Paradonpitak, 30, broke into Thanayos Pathumwassana's house on April 4, 2009. They killed the home's five occupants and took Bt3 million in valuables, including two desktop computers, a laptop computer, five cellphones and a van.

After their arrest, three of the defendants confessed that Wanchai hired them for the robbery. Wanchai had given an alibi that he was elsewhere, but the court was not convinced. The court was also presented with evidence of the defendants' asking another person to help get rid of the evidence.

Thanayos and his 17-year-old daughter Sasima were fatally shot while the 15yearold son Thanawat was strangled with a belt. The maid was brutally killed.

The court was told that Wanchai threatened Thanayos's wife Kanokkan to tell him the password to the safe, but she said only Thanayos, who was dead, knew it. So they strangled her too.

Seeing the defendants' actions as premeditated and brutal, the court sentenced all of them to death but then reduced three of the defendants' sentences to life because of their confessions.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/A-man-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-five-30183083.html

[turboprinz]

Policeman gets death for trafficking

Published: 15/08/2012 at 01:21 PM

The Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced a former Bangkok police officer to death after finding him guilty of having 120,000 methamphetamine pills in his possession with intent to sell and using a false official document.

He is Pol Snr Sgt-Maj Pairoj Wongsrikaew, a former investigation officer at Sam Sen police station.

The court heard evidence that on Jan 5, 2011 highway police of Phetchaburi province stopped a Honda Civic car driven by Pol Sr Sgt-Maj Pairoj for a search at tambon Thasen in Ban Lat district.

The highway police found 120,000 speed pills hidden under the back seat of the car.  The defendant said he was paid 200,000 baht to deliver some items to Nakhon Si Thammarat province, not knowing that the speed pills were hidden in the car and the licence plate number was false.

The court found him guilty as charged and sentenced him to death.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/307743/policeman-gets-death-for-trafficking

[GermanFan]

The Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced a former Bangkok police officer to death after finding him guilty of having 120,000 methamphetamine pills in his possession with intent to sell and using a false official document.

I am really starting to like Thailand. Their justice system seems to apply the DP without hesitating even to former members of the system. I highly approve of that!

[turboprinz]

Moz woman faces Thai death sentence

October 26 2012 at 03:00pm

Mozambique will ask Thailand to consider clemency for a woman who faces the death sentence after she was caught with six kilograms (13 pounds) of methamphetamine at Phuket International Airport, an official said on Friday.

Monica Ferreira Novela, 30, has yet to stand trial after she was detained earlier this month. Mozambique fears she is she is likely to get the death penalty if convicted.

“We are doing everything possible to avoid this sentence being effected,” Justino Tonnela of the Mozambican Justice Ministry's Legal Advice Department told AFP.

Transport Minister Paulo Zucula is due in Bangkok on official business this week and will raise the issue with Thailand's government.

“We are doing everything possible through diplomatic channels,” said Tonnela, adding that Mozambique's ambassador to Indonesia (who is also responsible for Thailand) was on his way to the Thai capital to join the bid for clemency.

Mozambique has no bilateral accords with Thailand that could help an extradition bid.

The South Asian country metes out severe punishments for drug trafficking including the death sentence

“We know it is a delicate case but we hope the Mozambican government's call will be considered,” said Tonnela. - AFP

http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/moz-woman-faces-thai-death-sentence-1.1412075

[turboprinz]

Ex-senator's death sentence upheld

Three hired to kill physician Nitcharee in 1996 over business row get life terms after aiding probe

BANGKOK: -- The Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence handed down by lower courts to former senator Sukhum Cherdchuen for ordering the assassination of a Chulalongkorn Hospital doctor 16 years ago, as well as the life sentences given to three other defendants.

It is believed Sukhum had the doctor killed following business conflicts, and that he subsequently committed fraudulent activities.

Reading the verdict yesterday, Criminal Court judges quoted the Supreme Court judges as saying that Sukhum's "not guilty" plea, along with those by Sarawuth Chaiyasing and Wichian Kittithanakhorn, were unacceptable. They cited the testimony of a man who was paid to be a lookout during the assassination who supplied crucial evidence proving that all four defendants were responsible for the death of anaesthetist Dr Nitcharee Makarasarn.

Nitcharee was killed on October 25, 1996 - 16 years to the day prior to the reading of the verdict.

Suspect Chatphat Kittithanakorn, who was sentenced to a life term for finding the hit team for Sukhum, died in prison before the Court of Appeals announced its verdict on June 26, 2009. Convicted gunman Thanasak Yimdee, who also faces life in prison, said he would not contest the verdict handed down by the Criminal Court on July 7, 2004.

According to court documents, a team of three men shot Nitcharee in the early morning of October 25, 1996 while she was driving out of her home in the Huai Khwang area of Bangkok. She died instantly after taking five bullets. The Criminal Court verdict verified the defendants' roles, saying that Thanasak was the gunman, Sarawuth the motorcycle rider and Wichian served as another lookout.

Chatphat was also found to have provided the murder weapon and ammunition for the hit team - an 11mm automatic military-use pistol. The confession of the three members of the hit team - which later earned them leniency for cooperation, seeing the court commute their original death penalties to life terms - implicated Sukhum. The former senator has pleaded not guilty all along, right from the initial police investigation and during the trial, and later in his two appeals.

Sukhum and Nitcharee became business partners after a brief romantic interlude, which was cited in several news reports. The victim later made Sukhum the director of a school owned by her family. Court documents acknowledged that the pair had several conflicts, especially when Nitcharee's mother gave Sukhum Bt200 million to buy land plots in Phetchaburi despite her daughter and husband's advice against it. Sukhum later exploited his girlfriend's mother's trust by turning the plot into a golf course and resort, which eventually lost money.

Sukhum also quarrelled with Nitcharee over losses at a company they co-owned that sold used cars and motorcycles and also collected unpaid debts. Sukhum is also fighting an eight-year imprisonment sentence for forging documents in a case filed by Nitcharee's mother and father, both of whom have since died.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/593633-ex-senators-death-sentence-upheld-bangkok/

[turboprinz]

Insurgent gets death sentence for role in military outpost attack
Published: 25/11/2012 at 12:00 AM

The Narathiwat provincial court has sentenced an insurgent to death as the trial of 15 suspects implicated in the deadly attack on a military outpost in January 2011 concluded yesterday.

The court also jailed four other inurgents, one for life and three for 35 years each.

Eight suspects were acquitted by the court, while one died during the trial and another jumped bail and is in hiding, said Col Pramote Prom-in, spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) Region 4.

The 15 suspects were on trial for their alleged involvement in a raid on the 38th Narathiwat special task force's outpost in Rangae district on Jan 19, 2011.

The Teachers' Federation of the Three Southern Border Provinces yesterday met to discuss security measures for teachers working in the far South following the killing of a headmistress in Pattani province on Thursday.

Federation chairman Boonsom Thongsiprai said teacher representatives would hold talks with security agencies, religious leaders and governors of the three southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat to work out ways to improve security for teachers.

The federation's move came after Nanthana Kaewchan, director of Tha Kamcham School in Pattani's Nong Chik district, was shot dead by heavily armed men while driving home from the school on Thursday.

Nanthana was the 154th teacher killed since the insurgency flared up in early 2004, federation advisor Boonchuay Thongsri said. He said the federation planned to ask the government for improved welfare benefits and safety for teachers.

A haul of explosives and bomb-making materials was found buried in a rubber plantation in Narathiwat's Rueso district yesterday.

Also in Rueso, three suspected insurgents were detained during a raid on five houses.

A combined team of 100 security officers yesterday travelled to Pongjueti village in tambon Lalor in Rueso district to search the five houses following a tipoff that members of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) separatist group were making bombs there.

Before they searched the houses, the team received a report from local residents that a group of strangers had hidden in a rubber plantation behind their village.

The officers split into two teams, with one scouring the plantation and the other searching the five houses.

The first team found a 11kg homemade bomb, a large quantity of explosives, a cooking-gas cylinder, sacks of fertiliser, fuel, nine batteries and other bomb-making materials buried in the plantation.

The other team arrested three suspected insurgents during their raid on the houses.

The suspects were detained for questioning at a military base yesterday.

Pol Col Dulyaman Yaena, chief of Rueso police station, said the seized bombs were believed to have been intended for use in a round of attacks in the district.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/322940/insurgent-gets-death-sentence-for-role-in-military-outpost-attack