January 12, 2010
BANGKOK (AFP) - Thai authorities Tuesday charged a senior policeman and four other police officers with murder over the disappearance of a Saudi businessman that was linked to the theft of Saudi royal jewellery.
The charges came a day after the Saudi charge d'affaires in Bangkok met with Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to seek an end to the bloody 20-year saga sparked by the theft of the gems from a Saudi prince's palace.
The deaths of three Saudi diplomats, the wife and daughter of a jewellery dealer, and Saudi businessman Mohamamad al-Ruwaily have all been linked to the case, which has soured relations between Thailand and Saudi Arabia.
Lieutenant General Somkid Boonthanom, police commander of Thailand's northern region, and four fellow officers had been indicted with the murder of al-Ruwaily in 1990, the office of the Thai attorney general said.
"Somkid and four accomplices were indicted today at the criminal court for premeditated murder, illegal detention and concealment of wrongdoing," said Thanapich Mulapruk, a senior official at the attorney general's office.
All five suspects denied the charges and the court set March 29 as the opening date of the case, he said.
The case -- one of Thailand's biggest mysteries -- began when a Thai janitor was jailed for stealing gems worth 20 million dollars in 1989 from the Saudi palace where he worked, before smuggling them back to Thailand.
Police recovered most of the jewellery but much of what was returned to the Saudi owner proved to be fake and many pieces are still missing.
As the Saudis pressed Thai authorities to find the rest of the hoard, the three Saudi diplomats were shot dead in two separate incidents in a single day in 1989.
The indictment accuses Somkid, who at the time ran Bangkok's southern district, and the other four policemen of abducting al-Ruawaily in 1990 because they thought he was connected with the deaths of the envoys.
In October Thailand's Supreme Court upheld a death sentence for another former senior policeman who in 1994 abducted and murdered a gem merchant's wife and son as he investigated the theft of Saudi royal jewellery.
The merchant, Santi Srithanakhan, had bought some of the jewellery stolen in the heist.
