Thailand’s Top Cop Flies to Germany to Escort Fugitive Monk Back to Thailand

 

FRANKFURT – The former assistant abbot at Wat Sampanthawong, Phra Prommethi who is implicated in an embezzlement scandal of temple funds is expected to be flown back from Frankfurt, Germany, to Bangkok on Thursday morning after he was apprehended over the weekend.

The fugitive monk will be accompanied by a team of police officers led by Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda, the national police chief. He is facing charges of money laundering

Phra Prommethi escaped from Bangkok to Nakhon Phanom province on May 24 with the help of a female follower, identified as Mrs Joom, a businesswoman whose husband has a mining business in Laos.

He later fled to Laos with his driver and Mrs Joom with the help of a Laotian businesswoman who arranged to have him flown to Phnom Penh where he boarded a plane to Doha and finally to Frankfurt where he was booked and held in the custody of German immigration officials at the airport on June 1.

Pol Gen Chakthip (above) and his team are now in Frankfurt to arrange for the return of Phra Prommethi to Thailand.

Meanwhile, Phra Wisutthisasanavithet or Chaokhun Ping, secretary of Phra Prommasith, former abbot of Wat Saket, was questioned by Crime Suppression Divison police for about two hours at the CSD headquarters on Monday concerning pornographic materials showing the monk having sex with a male follower.

CSD police declined to disclose details of the questioning, but only said that the monk had agreed to be disrobed.

Source: Thai PBS