BKK Bombings:New Year's Eve '06

[GWR]

Top police 'at fault'
Published on January 8, 2008

The National Human Rights Commission yesterday ruled that police were culpable in wrongly implicating two businessmen as bombers responsible for an explosion at Seacon Square shopping complex on New Year's Eve in 2006.

Welcoming the decision, Pratya Preechavej said later that he would hold the Royal Thai Police and certain senior investigators criminally responsible for their actions and would file a civil lawsuit demanding Bt50 million in damages in return for his rights being violated.

The NHRC said the police decision to still take further criminal action against the two men, who surrendered themselves to police, without sufficient evidence was a "stark violation against justice and human rights".

The NHRC did not say how the police action was a criminal liability or how the police would exactly compensate for their actions against the two men.

A few months after the bombing, pictures of Pratya and his friend Yutthaphong Kittisriworraphan were put on a wanted poster indicating they planted a bomb in a waste bin in the shopping complex in Bangkok's Prawet district. Police relied solely on footage from security cameras showing the two men walking around the area as their only evidence that they were the bombers.

Inspecting police investigation reports and the evidence, the joint 10-member NHRC panel found police had no sufficient evidence the men had anything to do with the explosion at the Seacon Square.

"Putting the pictures of both men on a wanted poster in the first place is already a violation of rights on their freedom, reputation and privacy, as well as those belonging to their family members," the NHRC statement said.

Even after both men turned themselves in, police declined to invalidate their arrest warrants and later pressed five serious charges against them. Pratya and Yutthaphong were held for one night in police custody at Prawet Police Station before they were released on bail at Bt100,000 each.

Pratya said he would also seek to have the indictment against him and his friend revoked, as it was still valid and legally viable against them in the public prosecution's process. "I will take my action once the 15-day mourning period for the late Princess Galyani Vadhana is over on January 17," he added.

The man said his newly opened restaurant was forced to close down because of losses resulting from customers who shunned the place, and a musical website he was running had been operating at loss because musicians turned away from him after learning of the wanted poster.

Head investigator Pol Maj-General Jate Mongkholhatthee said he "felt no worries" over the NHRC decision and that the men "could do whatever they wanted to".

"Police had been acting on the evidence available," he added.

The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008...s_30061505.php

[GWR]

It's OK to reopen the Saudi Jewels case, which everyone knows will never be solved. (Just a ploy to ease relations with Saudi Arabia.) But it is almost certainly convenient for someone in a high position to close this case. (I have NO idea exactly who either.) Public Interest Last!:

Investigation bombs

Bangkok Post Reporters
Police have decided to discontinue the year-long investigation into the deadly Bangkok bomb attacks on New Year's Eve of 2006, saying they have no clues as to who was behind the bombings.

The one-million-baht cash reward for information leading to the arrest of the bombers has also been cancelled, said Thani Somboonsap, the deputy national police chief.

He said investigators had struggled and worked on the case for as long as they could. They now agreed the investigation had reached the end of the line, he said.

"More than one year has passed. The investigators have agreed to call off the probe as they have been unable to find any offenders," said Pol Gen Thani.

He added that the investigators will submit a report informing the prosecution of their intention to stop proceeding with the case.

However, he said the case could be reopened in the future if and when new pieces of evidence emerge.

He added that the prosecution decided last Thursday to drop charges against Pradya Prichavej, 33, and Yutapong Kitisriworapan, 32, due to flimsy evidence. The two were earlier thought to be suspects in the bomb blast at Seacon Square, one of the nine locations bombed in Bangkok and Nonthaburi.

Eight bombs hit Bangkok and another one exploded in Nonthaburi on the night of Dec 31, 2006, and the early hours of Jan 1, killing three people and injuring 42.

In Bangkok, the explosions occurred at a bus stop near the Victory Monument, in a rubbish bin at the main market in Klong Toey, at traffic police booths in Saphan Khwai and at Sukhumvit Soi 62 and in the parking lot at the Seacon Square department store on Srinakarin road and the Major Cineplex Ratchayothin in the Phahon Yothin area.

In Nonthaburi, a bomb blew up a police booth at the Khae Rai intersection.

However, Pol Gen Thani said investigators will continue with their probe into three other bombings that occurred after the nine explosions.

A low-powered bomb exploded in a phone booth on the night of April 9 last year at the Major Cineplex Ratchayothin, the same site as one of the Dec 31 bombings.

On May 5, another bomb went off in a public telephone booth on Soi Ratchawithi 24, followed by an explosion near a telephone booth outside the Survey School of the Royal Thai Survey Department near the army headquarters on Ratchadamnoen avenue on Sept 30.

Pol Gen Thani said he believed the same group of bombers were involved in the three latest bombings.

Police were waiting for the results of lab tests on bomb shrapnel from the three bombing incidents, which is being conducted in Australia.

Former suspect Mr Pradya said he will not withdraw his 50-million-baht lawsuit against the Royal Thai Police Office.

He said it was obvious that he was made a scapegoat.

"I had to move to other provinces after I had sued the police. I'm afraid to live in Bangkok. I don't know what trouble I will face," he said.

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