Court acquits red shirt on bomb blast charge
‘No proof’ she was connected to bombers
Min Buri Provincial Court has acquitted red-shirt supporter Amporn “Khru Khaek” Jaikorn who faced charges of being involved in a bomb blast in Min Buri district that killed two people in 2014.
It is the second time Ms Amporn has been acquitted. Late last year the Criminal Court acquitted her of involvement in a separate bomb blast at Saman Metta Mansion in Nonthaburi that left four people dead in 2010, the same year the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship staged rallies against the Abhisit Vejjajiva government.
The Min Buri court yesterday ruled the prosecution had produced no evidence or witnesses which clearly implicated Ms Amporn, a Chiang Mai resident, of involvement in the explosion at a car park on Rat Uthit Road on the night of March 29, 2014.
Police believed the 57-year-old was the woman seen by witnesses meeting another suspect, identified as Kasi Ditthanarat, at a house where explosive devices were suspected to have been made.
Police said a home-made bomb hidden in a motorcycle ridden by two men had exploded prematurely when they arrived at the ground of Toribun Islamic Religious School, located between Soi Rat Uthit 25 and 27. The officers also said Mr Kasi leased the house to the two men. The house, which is about 100 metres from the blast scene, was searched by investigators who found five pipe bombs, six gas cylinders, one gallon of fuel and two motorcycles.
However, after studying the prosecutors’ indictment statement, the Min Buri court found nothing that could prove the woman seen meeting Mr Kasi was Ms Amporn, so police could not confirm beyond all doubt that she was connected in any way to the bomb blast.
Witnesses who saw the woman could not confirm she was Ms Amporn and forensic experts did not find Ms Amporn’s fingerprints at the house, the court said.
On hearing the judgement yesterday, Ms Amporn responded: “I have total confidence in the judicial system.”
She was arrested at her home in Chiang Mai’s Hang Dong district on Aug 31 last year and was denied bail.
On Nov 17 last year, the Criminal Court acquitted her of involvement in an explosion at Saman Metta Mansion in Nonthaburi’s Bang Bua Thong district in which four people were killed and nine others injured.
The court ruled there was no clear evidence to substantiate the accusation against her. However, the prosecutors appealed against the judgement in last year’s court ruling and Ms Amporn had to be remanded in prison to face the Min Buri explosion case, in which she was also acquitted.
Police investigators who examined evidence in the Min Buri blast and the explosion in the Saman Metta Mansion case believed the two events were related.
Ms Amporn was also accused of illegal possession of an AK-47 assault rifle and 129 rounds of ammunition in the Saman Metta case.