Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 6, 2006 13:09:06 GMT -5
Death penalty for Aussie auditor's killers
THE trial of 4 men charged over the 1999 murder of Australian accountant
Michael Wansley, who had uncovered a $150million Thai sugar mill fraud,
ended yesterday with 2 death penalties, a life sentence and the acquittal
of the accused mastermind.
Bangkok Criminal Court sentenced Namtal Kaset sugar mill employee Somchoke
Sutthiwiriwan and retired policeman Sompong Buasakul to death for
conspiring to murder the auditor near the city of Nakhon Sawan.
Wansley, a Melbourne accountant seconded from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
Jaiyos to help restructure the debt-laden Kaset Thai Sugar Company, was
travelling in northern Thailand on March 10, 1999, when two men on a
motorcycle pulled alongside his van and shot him.
Somchoke's brother Boonphan Sutheevirawan, who was the mill's human
resources manager, was sentenced to life in jail for conspiring to kill
Wansley.
But sugar mill owner Pradit Siriviriyakul, accused of funding and
masterminding the murder, walked free after the court ruled there was not
enough evidence to convict.
Sompong and Somchoke face death by lethal injection, although that is
unlikely to happen for at least a couple of years as Thai courts review
all cases involving the death sentence.
Wansley, the 1st foreign executive to be murdered in Thailand, was
restructuring the huge debts of 3 sugar companies in Nakhon Sawan that
collapsed after the Asian financial crisis of 1997.
He discovered that the firms, which had total debts of about $700 million,
had had about $150million siphoned off into shelf companies.
A witness, Chalong Pienpong, told the court that Pradit had paid him
30,000 baht ($1000) to dispose of the motorcycle used for the killing.
He also said Pradit told him after the murder: "It's very good the farang
(foreigner) is dead, now we can all live comfortably."
A senior policeman also gave evidence, claiming that Pradit offered a $4
million bribe not to charge him with murder.
In their verdict, the judges said while there were phone records that
showed Pradit had been in regular contact with the other three accused,
there was no actual witness to prove he was part of the conspiracy to have
Wansley killed.
Yesterday's verdicts followed the conviction in 1999 of Somchai Jaihao,
the motorcyclist who drove the gunman that shot Wansley. Somchai confessed
several weeks after the killing and ended up with a life term.
Pichet Kaewsamduang, the alleged gunman who shot Wansley, is being tried
separately. Pichet, arrested in August 2003, claims he played no part in
the killing. He also faces trials for two separate, unrelated murders.
Public prosecutor Rut Kaewsuwan, who has spent the past seven years trying
to convict Pradit and the 3 others, did not even bother to go to the court
yesterday, having possibly been tipped off about the result.
Robin Hamilton-Coates, the consul at the Australian embassy, appeared
equally unimpressed, referring journalists to the Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade in Canberra for comment.
Australian ambassador Bill Paterson and his predecessor Miles Kupa had
both written to the Thai authorities to express Australia's strong
interest in the Wansley case.
Given the likelihood of appeals, the Wansley murder case is expected to
drag on for 1 or 2 more years at the very least.
(source: The Australian)
THE trial of 4 men charged over the 1999 murder of Australian accountant
Michael Wansley, who had uncovered a $150million Thai sugar mill fraud,
ended yesterday with 2 death penalties, a life sentence and the acquittal
of the accused mastermind.
Bangkok Criminal Court sentenced Namtal Kaset sugar mill employee Somchoke
Sutthiwiriwan and retired policeman Sompong Buasakul to death for
conspiring to murder the auditor near the city of Nakhon Sawan.
Wansley, a Melbourne accountant seconded from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
Jaiyos to help restructure the debt-laden Kaset Thai Sugar Company, was
travelling in northern Thailand on March 10, 1999, when two men on a
motorcycle pulled alongside his van and shot him.
Somchoke's brother Boonphan Sutheevirawan, who was the mill's human
resources manager, was sentenced to life in jail for conspiring to kill
Wansley.
But sugar mill owner Pradit Siriviriyakul, accused of funding and
masterminding the murder, walked free after the court ruled there was not
enough evidence to convict.
Sompong and Somchoke face death by lethal injection, although that is
unlikely to happen for at least a couple of years as Thai courts review
all cases involving the death sentence.
Wansley, the 1st foreign executive to be murdered in Thailand, was
restructuring the huge debts of 3 sugar companies in Nakhon Sawan that
collapsed after the Asian financial crisis of 1997.
He discovered that the firms, which had total debts of about $700 million,
had had about $150million siphoned off into shelf companies.
A witness, Chalong Pienpong, told the court that Pradit had paid him
30,000 baht ($1000) to dispose of the motorcycle used for the killing.
He also said Pradit told him after the murder: "It's very good the farang
(foreigner) is dead, now we can all live comfortably."
A senior policeman also gave evidence, claiming that Pradit offered a $4
million bribe not to charge him with murder.
In their verdict, the judges said while there were phone records that
showed Pradit had been in regular contact with the other three accused,
there was no actual witness to prove he was part of the conspiracy to have
Wansley killed.
Yesterday's verdicts followed the conviction in 1999 of Somchai Jaihao,
the motorcyclist who drove the gunman that shot Wansley. Somchai confessed
several weeks after the killing and ended up with a life term.
Pichet Kaewsamduang, the alleged gunman who shot Wansley, is being tried
separately. Pichet, arrested in August 2003, claims he played no part in
the killing. He also faces trials for two separate, unrelated murders.
Public prosecutor Rut Kaewsuwan, who has spent the past seven years trying
to convict Pradit and the 3 others, did not even bother to go to the court
yesterday, having possibly been tipped off about the result.
Robin Hamilton-Coates, the consul at the Australian embassy, appeared
equally unimpressed, referring journalists to the Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade in Canberra for comment.
Australian ambassador Bill Paterson and his predecessor Miles Kupa had
both written to the Thai authorities to express Australia's strong
interest in the Wansley case.
Given the likelihood of appeals, the Wansley murder case is expected to
drag on for 1 or 2 more years at the very least.
(source: The Australian)