Thai court acquits five police officers charged with killing Saudi businessman

BANGKOK, March 31 (TNA) - Bangkok's Criminal Court has acquited five Thai police officers charged with abduction and murder of a Saudi Arabian businessman, Mohammad al-Ruwaili, due to insufficient evidence. Prolonged for over two decades, the case, which occured in February 1990, reached another decision on Monday. The accused were former police inspector-general Police Lieutenant General Somkid Boonthanom, former chief of the Sop Moei station in Mae Hong Son Province in the Thai North Police Colonel Sornrak or Somchai Jusanit, former chief of the Nam Khun station in Ubon Ratchathani Province in the Thai Northeast Police Colonel Prapas Piyamongkol, as well as Police Lieutenant Colonel Suradej Udomdee and Police Sergeant Major Prasong Thorang. Relatives of the dead and staffs of the Saudi Arabian Embassy to Thailand, as well as Police Lieutenant General Somkid and his lawyers were at the court on Ratchadaphisek Road in Bangkok. The Criminal Court reasoned that it found there has not been any new and reliable piece of evidence in the case. Earlier, the public prosecution decided not to press any charge in the case due to inadequate evidence, but the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) later took over the case and indicted the five defendants on January 12, 2010, only one month before the case reached its statute of limitations, after the DSI acquired a crescent moon ring from one of the alleged abduction and murder team whom the department treated as a witness and who blamed Police Lieutenant General Somkid for ordering the abduction and murder. The case has severe impacts on Thai-Saudi Arabian relations in addition to the murder of Saudi Arabian diplomats and the theft of gems and jewelry from the Saudi Arabian Royal Family, all of which happened approximately simultaneously. (TNA)