Regional News
Thailand’s National Police Chief Orders Police to Keep Quiet on Foreign Criminal Cases
Royal Thai Police Commissioner General Somyot Poompanmoung
BANGKOK – Thailand’s National Police Chief, Pol Gen Somyot Poompanmoung has ordered Police Offices Nationwide to information arrests of foreigners thought to be engaged in criminal activities secret because their cases can be sensitive.
Pol Gen Somyot Poompanmoung’s order came in response to reports on Indian fugitive bomber Jagtar Singh who was apprehended in Chon Buri Province this week.
According to Gen Somyot the arrests of foreigners is a sensitive issue and might impact Thailand’s International relations, saying nothing with regards to Thai Authorities withholding information in order to protect Thailand’s billion dollar tourism industry.
Gen Somyot said he ordered police nationwide not to give information about the arrests of foreigners to reporters and to promptly carry out extradition procedures with the countries that wanted them.
Since Gen Somyot has taken office, more than 10 criminal suspects wanted internationally have been arrested and but he does not want their cases to hit the headlines.
Pol Gen Somyot held talks in early December 2014 with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Keith Bristow, director general of the National Crime Agency in the UK to update them on the prosecution of Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo, defendants in the highly publicized murder case of David Miller, 24 and Hannah Witheridge, 23, on the Thai island of Koh Tao.
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