Premchai to face firearms charge

Prosecutors have decided to indict Italian-Thai Development Plc president Premchai Karnasuta on an additional charge of illegal possession of firearms.

Police investigators yesterday briefed deputy national police chief Pol Gen Srivara Ransibrahmanakul on the latest developments in the case against the construction tycoon.

Pol Gen Srivara said later that prosecutors from Region 8 have decided to indict Mr Premchai in the Criminal Court for illegal possession of firearms in violation of the Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Fireworks Act, NCPO order No.44 and the Criminal Code.

Investigators from the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division reportedly found 43 firearms and a quantity of ammunition during a search of Mr Premchai’s residence on Soi Sun Wichai 3 in Huai Khwang district, Bangkok in February. Six of the guns were not licenced.

Mr Premchai and three employees were arrested on the night of Feb 4 for allegedly engaging in illegal hunting activities in Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, a Unesco World Heritage site in Kanchanaburi province.

They were found in possession of several dead animals, including a rare black leopard and its pelt.

After the police submitted an investigation report recommending indictment on 11 charges, prosecutors decided to press six charges against Mr Premchai.

They are: carrying firearms in public without permission, colluding to hunt wildlife in a wildlife sanctuary without permission, hunting protected wildlife without permission, possessing protected wildlife carcasses without permission, concealing wildlife carcasses obtained illegally, and collecting wildlife items in a national forest reserve without permission.

The five dropped charges were: entering a wildlife sanctuary without permission, possessing wildlife-hunting tools, attempting to hunt wildlife in a wildlife sanctuary without permission, committing cruelty to animals, and possessing firearms and ammunition without permission.