Thread: Chief prosecutor's wife killed over land deal: DSI

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

SD, you're making yourself look foolish... You may want to stop now.

Oh the irony....

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

What are the odds the gunman is found and his employer brought to justice?

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

A gunman will be found and dealt with to the limits of the law; likely a Burmese migrant.

The trigger-man is probably already dead, silence is worth more than his life for people involved, I'm sure.

I agree with that Noodles, but they'll still fit up a Burmese migrant, so that the case can be run, then officially closed...

Bangkok Post : Journos fear threats to life

LAND SCANDAL

Journos fear threats to life

• Published: 2/10/2010 at 12:00 AM
• Newspaper section: News

Journalists looking into the land encroachment scandal in Ratchaburi's Suan Phung district say they have been threatened and are afraid for their lives.

Representatives of the Thai Broadcast Journalists Association (TBJA) and the Thai Journalists Association yesterday met Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to discuss the issue.

Sucha Kleepbua, 46, was murdered on Sept 21 as a result of a suspected dispute over land involving an influential figure in Ratchaburi, the father of a cabinet member.

Sucha purchased the land from the minister's father but then there was a dispute over the agreement.

The Department of Special Investigation said the minister's father had leased thousands of rai of land in Suan Phung district, including large tracts belonging to the state, and leased them illegally.

News teams from Thai PBS TV station and the Daily News newspaper faced threats to their safety covering the ensuing scandal, TBJA president Wisuth Komwatcharapong said.

The threats included being chased by an unknown car while travelling in the province and a warning that hitmen were arriving from other provinces, Mr Wisuth said.

The reporters have been told by their companies to leave Ratchaburi, he said.

The media associations want police investigations sped up because they believe the same people behind Sucha's killing are threatening them.

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

a suspected dispute over land involving an influential figure in Ratchaburi, the father of a cabinet member.

Do any of our Board sleuths know who this guy is?
And why is the Media withholding his name?
I guess it's clear he couldn't be a Thaksin sympathiser then.

Originally Posted by Butterfly

it all comes down to the electorate, and what they do with their votes.

I disagree. As long as there is no free press, and the rule of the law is not applied, democracy is impossible. There are no free choices without free information, and without law enforcement free elections are also impossible.

There is no journalist and editor in all of Thailand with enough balls to name the cabinet member (even anonymously)?

Even in Russia, where violence is much more pervasive, there are brave journalists who expose corruption (and occasionally get assassinated for it). In Thailand, the best the public gets is "father of unnamed cabinet minister"... all the while, if Somchai the tuk tuk driver gets accused of a crime (not proven yet), he gets his picture plastered all over the front page, fingers pointed.

Thai public has a strong interest to know this, and it's very relevant... if they're allowed to vote again, which is not a given.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Can someone tell me what makes this story of any interest whatsoever?

Thai killed in crooked deal dispute.

You call that "news"?

Go figure - this is news, whereas apparently the attempted coup against the Ecuadorian President - one of BBC's top stories was not. It was moved out of World News and into MKP because I compared it to Thailand's ousting of Thaksin..

Originally Posted by nikster

Originally Posted by Butterfly

it all comes down to the electorate, and what they do with their votes.

I disagree. As long as there is no free press, and the rule of the law is not applied, democracy is impossible. There are no free choices without free information, and without law enforcement free elections are also impossible.

agree, but it also comes with responsible journalism, something Thailand is not really famous for.

Journalists here are either bought or too silly to write a credible story,

http://www.tannetwork.tv/tan/ViewData.aspx?DataID=1040153

Prosecutor's Wife Murder Taken as Special Case

UPDATE : 28 January 2011

The special investigation agency takes over the case involving the murder of a senior attorney's wife in Ratchaburi province after discovering a link to civil servants and a noted influential figure in the area.

Director general of the Department of Special Investigation, or DSI, Tharit Pengdit, said today's meeting of the special cases committee, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister in charge of national security Suthep Thaugsuban, resolved to take over the inquiry into the murder of managing director of Viphadee Plant Company, Sucha Kleepbua, also wife of the chief of Chaiya district attorney office in Surat Thani.


Sucha was shot and killed aboard a passenger bus while she was visiting her palm and rubber plantations in Suan Pueng district in Ratchaburi.

Tharit said the case involved civil servants and a leader of a local criminal ring, who is connected with the encroachment on a state-owned land plot and had conflicts with Sucha over some land purchases.

The special case committee also endorsed the DSI to investigate cases in which state officials are accused of seeking bribes from operators of entertainment venues and alien workers in the North, the East and Bangkok as the crimes are organized and tarnish the image of state agencies.

The meeting resolved to add 24 more types of felonies to the DSI's jurisdiction, which currently numbers 27 types of crime.

Those additional cases include cases against national security, cyber crime, drugs, human trafficking, land purchase frauds and counterfeit passports.

The resolution will be put forward to the Justice Ministry for declaration as a ministerial regulation.

He also questioned progress on cases concerning the crackdown on the red-shirt protests, which was forwarded to the Metropolitan Police Bureau.

He commented that the red-shirt group's planned submission of complaint to the International Criminal Court against the government over the crackdown on its protests is impossible as Thailand is not its signatory.

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

red-shirt group's planned submission of complaint to the International Criminal Court against the government over the crackdown on its protests is impossible as Thailand is not its signatory.

Thanks Mr Clean. Of course, the UDD's submission of a complaint to the ICC has nothing to do with whether Thailand is a signatory or not. Several such complaints have been lodged in the past. It is a non-sequitur.

Let's start a log book of all these cnut families from Sarit on forward. A sort of corrupt family tree to connect the fascist dots - and the ill-gotten money being used to send their grand kids to school in America - so they can come back and kill 9 people in a van and a couple more at a bus stop.

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

The meeting resolved to add 24 more types of felonies to the DSI's jurisdiction, which currently numbers 27 types of crime. Those additional cases include cases against national security, cyber crime, drugs, human trafficking, land purchase frauds and counterfeit passports.

Oh dear...

DSI accepts highprofile cases

DSI accepts highprofile cases

By The Nation
Published on January 29, 2011


The Department of Special Investigation yesterday accepted two highprofile criminal cases: the murder of a woman over a landgrab scheme and another concerning corruption allegations against Bangkok police.

Last September, Sucha Kleepbua, the wife of a senior public prosecutor in Surat Thani, was shot dead on a public bus after returning from a meeting with police and land officials in Ratchaburi. She was trying to find out why title deeds to a number of plots she was planning to buy were in the wrong name.

A DSI report said some people involved in a landgrab in the province were so influential that police made almost no progress in solving the murder.

In the second case, a team of corrupt police in Bangkok allegedly turned a blind eye to human trafficking operations in return for bribes. They also allegedly provided protection to night entertainment venues in their jurisdiction in many tourist locations in the capital.

DSI directorgeneral Tharit Pengdit declined to say whether the accused included police generals or indicate how many officers were involved.

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

In the second case, a team of corrupt police in Bangkok allegedly turned a blind eye to human trafficking operations in return for bribes. They also allegedly provided protection to night entertainment venues in their jurisdiction in many tourist locations in the capital.

DSI directorgeneral Tharit Pengdit declined to say whether the accused included police generals or indicate how many officers were involved.

Well the trafficking reference is probably the child beggars in lower Sukhumvit while the other 'night entertainment' reference is going to be Nana, Soi Cowboy and Sois 7 and 7/1. I wonder if this is a sop to the Army by Abhisit (who supposedly controls DSI) to defer a coup for a while in order for the army boys to muscle in on a lucrative trade?

This will get real ugly as it's clearly a case of the Army mafia (via DSI) moving in on the Police mafia turf. And you can't help but wonder who (really) higher up the chain would be affected? Notice they aren't taking on Khao San Road?

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

The meeting resolved to add 24 more types of felonies to the DSI's jurisdiction, which currently numbers 27 types of crime. Those additional cases include cases against national security, cyber crime, drugs, human trafficking, land purchase frauds and counterfeit passports.

Oh dear...

Der Sterm Troopers hast kammen!

DSI looking into murder, land tie up - The Nation

DSI looking into murder, land tie up

Piyanuch Thamnukasetchai
The Nation February 6, 2012 1:00 am


The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has stepped up a probe into a land-encroachment case in Ratchaburi linked to a high-profile murder allegedly ordered by the father of a Cabinet member in the Abhisit Vejjajiva government.

Speaking yesterday during an inspection, DSI special agent Prawuth Wongsrinil said two vast land plots involved in the case would be surveyed along with a crime scene investigation into the murder, in which Sucha Kleebbua was shot dead on a local bus in broad daylight by a lone gunman on September 21, 2009.

Sucha, the wife of a public prosecutor based in Surat Thani, owned a land plot and had paid Bt10 million to purchase another plot from the father of the unnamed politician in a Bt25-million deal. She later wanted her Bt10 million back after learning the father wanted instead to sell her another plot located on a hill, which sloped greater than 25 degrees, making it non-transferable under the land law.

One of the plots under investigation is owned by a deputy head of the provincial palm plantation cooperative, which covers an entire hill, while the other is an encroachment on a level area, covering around 500 rai, said Prawut, the case investigator. He will visit Ratchaburi again on February 9, with Thirachai Wutthitham, a secretary to the justice minister.

Prawuth said the murder victim also wanted to rent a different plot from a lease scheme offered by the government, but her application for the rent was also challenged by the father, who rented or owned more than 1,000 rai in Ratchaburi. Reportedly he wanted to sell the property, not use it for farming as expected under the spirit of the lease scheme.

Developers and financiers, mostly senior officials and influential people with political connections based in the South, have encroached extensively on land in Ratchaburi, which is mostly non-transferable under supervision of the Treasury Department, and governed by the military as it is a border province. The DSI, the department and the military are jointly working on legal amendments to make prosecution of offenders easier.

Legal technicalities have been problematic for suppression of forest and land encroachment in this province. During a 1989 crackdown by the Crime Suppression Department, most offenders and encroachers had their cases dismissed by public prosecutors on grounds of insufficient evidence or legal technicalities.


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Murder probe to investigate encroachment | Bangkok Post: news

Murder probe to investigate encroachment

• Published: 6/02/2012 at 12:00 AM
• Newspaper section: News

The Department of Special Investigation's probe into the murder of the wife of a senior prosecutor is likely to be extended to cover alleged encroachment of state land in Ratchaburi's Suan Phung district.

DSI investigator Prawuth Wongsrinil said DSI officials will visit the area to inspect two plots of land which have been allegedly taken over by investors.

The two plots are classified as "ratchaphatsadu" land which, under the law, can be leased to individuals.

However, thousands of rai of ratchaphatsadu land in Suan Phung district have been encroached upon by investors with an intent to sell.

Pol Lt Col Prawuth said the first plot covers an entire mountain in the district and the other covers 500 rai of land which has been prepared for palm farming.

He said the mountain plot is also designated as a security zone because it is located near the border.

He said a large pond has been found on the mountain plot and an access road has been built.

He said the encroachment inquiry was triggered by a probe into the fatal shooting of Sucha Kleepbua, the wife of Surat Thani prosecutor Thiti Khumrak.

She was gunned down on board a bus on route to Suan Phung district to visit palm and para rubber plantations on Sept 21, 2010 following a land purchase dispute. She had paid 10 million baht as a deposit for 1,200 rai of the land, valued at 25 million baht.

She later wanted to cancel the purchase after becoming suspicious that it might not be legal to buy the land.It was unclear if the land she had planned to buy is part of the two ratchaphatsadu plots or if it belonged to other areas. Pol Lt Col Prawuth said the DSI officials will also inspect the location where Sucha was killed.

They will make their inspection on Thursday.

So that's two Democrat Party family 'mafia' style murders - Good to see the Dems are so squeeky clean "the educated party"..