5 police charged in murder of Saudi businessman acquitted

[misskit]

Thailand’s Supreme Court today acquitted five police officers, including a police general, charged with the abduction and murder of a Saudi businessman who was reportedly on an assignment to investigate the alleged theft by a Thai gardener of a 50-carat blue diamond from the Saudi royal family thirty years ago.


Upholding the acquittal by two lower courts, the Supreme Court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prove that the defendants were involved in disappearance of Mr. Mohammad al-Ruwaili.


The defendants were Pol Lt-Gen Somkid Boonthanom, former police inspector-general; Pol Col Soralak Joosanit, former superintendent of Sob Moei district police in Mae Hong Son province; Pol Col Prapas Piyamongkol, former superintendent of Nam Khun district police in Ubon Ratchathani province; Pol Lt-Col Suradet Udomdee and Pol Sgt Maj Prasong Thorrung.


In 1990, according to prosecutors, the five officers were ordered by then national police chief, Pol Gen Sawaeng Thiraswadi, to investigate the murder of three Saudi diplomats in Bangkok, which were believed to relate to bitter conflicts between Saudi Arabia and Iran over the former’s violent crackdown on Shiite Muslims.


Junior officers at the time, the five apprehended al-Ruwaili under suspicion of involvement in the murders. The Saudi businessman was reportedly held at a motel in Phra Khanong district in Bangkok where he was tortured and finally killed. His body was reported to have been taken to Si Racha district of Chon Buri to be disposed of in a cover up. The murders of the Three Saudi diplomats remain unresolved and the blue diamond is still missing.


The unresolved cases have since strained the relationship between Thailand and Saudi Arabia.

https://www.thaipbsworld.com/5-polic...man-acquitted/

[Chittychangchang]

A case for TDCSI?

[Pragmatic]

The Thai gardener did it.

[harrybarracuda]

The owner actually died in 1999, so I wonder if there is still a will to pursue this case, or just take a nice payoff from the Thai government. An island, bit of land, hotels, that kind of thing.

[Luigi]

Always found it quite amazing there aren't any major books, documentaries or a movie with Tom Cruise based on The Blue Diamond Affair.


Is one of the craziest stories out there.

[Topper]

Always found it quite amazing there aren't any major books, documentaries or a movie with Tom Cruise based on The Blue Diamond Affair.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adv...Blue_Carbuncle


Get writing...if you dare while living in Thailand......

[kmart]

Three decades old now. Undermines just how rotten and venal the RTP and Thai elite truly is. Prescilla herself allegedly wore the Blue Diamond a few times after confiscating it off the RTP top guys missus...

[cyrille]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adv...Blue_Carbuncle


Get writing...if you dare while living in Thailand......

And if you can think of a role for Cruise.

[harrybarracuda]

Someone call Cruise and see if he can make the audition.

INT - BEER BAR (DAY)

A scruffy tefler sits nursing a luke warm Singha in a filthy beer bar. In front of him is an ashtray filled with half smoked roll ups, one of them still sending wisps of smoke into the stale air. He wears a wife beater covered in smears of dried ketchup, and a pair of old "I love Phuket" shorts covered with faded urine stains. He lets out a rattled, cancerous cough, spraying spit on the table and revealing his yellowing teeth. He brushes wisps of grey hair back over his sweaty dome.

He reads an old copy of the Bangkok Post. The headline blares 'THAI SERVANT IN STOLEN GEMS CAPER".

"I know where they are!" he exclaims, panting heavily. "I must post it on a crappy online forum!".

"You mao", says the wizened old hooker sat opposite him, still clutching the screwed up 100 baht note he'd thrown at her the night before in return for the awkward blow job she'd given him. Her phone beeps with a message from her husband asking her when she's coming home.

[DrB0b]

We all know where the Blue Diamond ended up. The person it was stolen for had no compunctions about wearing it. The acquittals are not surprising, what's surprising is that it even got this far.

[jabir]

Won't be worn in public again, too much negativity, so did they chop chop or is it buried for a statutory term after the last surviving thief?

[baldrick]

The Thai gardener did it.

I wonder if they are still hiring slave labour or if the security implications have sunk in

[Luigi]

Won't be worn in public again

Though a copy of it might.

[Harry O]

I was positive it had something to do with the Blue Diamond theft and scam/cover-up, but premature senility is creeping in.

“the murder of three Saudi diplomats in Bangkok, which were believed to relate to bitter conflicts between Saudi Arabia and Iran over the former’s violent crackdown on Shiite Muslims.”

It’s changed though, the cover theory that is. Ten years back Thai DSI tossed out these clunkers.

“The police listed three possible motives for the killings: a conflict of interest over sending Thai workers to Saudi Arabia, the illegal export of marijuana, sandalwood and oil to Saudi Arabia through the abuse of diplomatic immunity privileges, and a conflict among mafia-type gangs in Pattaya.”

Obviously a cover theory is important. The new one helps erase the memory of a quarter million Thai’s working in SA, and sending home remittances. It’s all good.