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Friday January 13, 3:40 PMThai PM says government officials killed Muslim lawyer
At least four officials were involved in the murder of Somchai Neelapaijit, who went missing in Bangkok in March 2004, Thaksin said, adding that prosecutors would file a new case, possibly next month. "I know that Somchai is dead, and more than four government officials were involved, but witnesses and evidence are still being collected," Thaksin told reporters. He said Thailand's department of special investigations was working on the case and that murder charges were being considered. "Circumstantial evidence confirmed that he's dead. But this case is not easy at all, and because it involves government officials, it's very difficult to find evidence and witnesses," he said. Thaksin's comments, the first time he has publicly accepted Somchai was murdered, come one day after a police officer was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison over the lawyer's disappearance. Four others were cleared of all charges by a criminal court. Thaksin did not say if new charges would be filed against the same group or against other government officials. But he said murder charges had not been filed against the five because investigators have yet to find Somchai's body. Somchai had publicly accused police of torturing four of his clients while in custody. The clients, all Muslim men, were accused of belonging to regional extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah but were acquitted in June 2005. His disappearance, and the failure of police to explain the case, is frequently cited as one of the grievances against the Bangkok government in southern Thailand, where more than 1,000 people have been killed in two years of unrest blamed on Islamic separatists, organized crime and corruption. Despite sporadic arrests, few people have been prosecuted or convicted of crimes in the three provinces bordering Malaysia. Analysts often cite a climate of impunity as a key factor underlying the unrest. Major Ngern Thongsuk was convicted Thursday of coercion for forcing Somchai into a car the night he disappeared, but his light sentence drew quick condemnation from Somchai's family as well as rights groups. Justice Elizabeth Evatt, an Australian member of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists, said it welcomed Thaksin's admission of Somchai's death. "It's extremely satisfactory that the prime minister has publicly acknowledged that Somchai has in fact been killed, murdered of course, and that this was done by public officials," Evatt told AFP. "I'm very hopeful that the investigations that he's referred to will be completed quickly, and further charges laid." |
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