Cops fight to keep charges against tycoon

Police will meet on Monday to prepare a letter of objection for submission to public prosecutors regarding the indictment against construction tycoon Premchai Karnasuta.

The move comes after the police received a decision on the matter from the Office of Public Prosecution Region 7.

Deputy police chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said he had ordered investigators to find more documents pertaining to laws and regulations, especially for regulations regarding entry to national parks by the National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department (NPWPCD).

Police proposed earlier that Mr Premchai should be indicted on 11 counts. Public prosecutors on Wednesday dropped five of them, leaving six including the charge of colluding to enter a wildlife sanctuary without permission.

Although no penalty is stated in the NPWPCD’s regulation, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has already filed a civil suit against Mr Premchai and three other suspects on this offence, said Pol Gen Srivara.

The president of Italian-Thai Develop- ment Plc and three of his friends were arrested on Feb 4. They were charged with poaching inside the Thungyai Nareusuan Wildlife Sanctuary, a Unesco World Heritage site in Kanchanaburi province.

The other three were his employees: Yong Dodkhruea, Nathee Riamsaen and Thanee Thummat.

Another issue police plan to object to is the dropped indictment on colluding to smuggle wildlife-poaching equipment or weapons into a wildlife sanctuary without permission.

Pol Gen Srivara said investigators have evidence proving that a gun found in the sanctuary belongs to Mr Premchai.

Reactivating this would rekindle another charge that prosecutors plan to drop, he said. That one is colluding in attempting to hunt wildlife in a wildlife sanctuary without permission.

Pol Gen Srivara asked why the same charge was dropped against Mr Premchai but not in the case of Mr Thanee despite evidence proving that the gun used by the latter belonged to the former.

The officers said they have accepted the prosecutor’s decision to drop the charge of colluding to commit cruelty to wild animals, among others.