South gold shop owner takes AMLO to court

Suriyan Pongmanuwut said AMLO agents raided his gold shop in Sungai Padi district on March 10 and took away valuables worth Bt16 million and Bt570,000 in cash. The agents told him that he was connected to the unrest and the drug trade in the southern border provinces.
He said a group of soldiers had arrested Suree Pohdaoh, one of the biggest drug dealers in Tak Bai, and Pateemoh, who brought Malaysian ringgit from Suree to exchange at his gold shop.
A few days later, operatives from the Narcotics Control Board, the Department of Special Investigation and military searched his shop. They asked him to be a state witness and pointed to a picture of the suspect. Sungai Padi police also issued an order to protect him as he might be in danger.
But AMLO’s agents told Suriyan that his gold and money might have come from drug dealers and this money would support their efforts to create disturbances in the southern provinces.
An administrative committee had ordered its staff to investigate whether Suriyan was involved in the unrest and confiscated his property for 90 days. But now it was 135 days, which exceeded the committee’s order, and he wanted his money and gold back.
“I cannot accept this process. I have to ask for justice for myself. I’m just an ordinary gold shop owner,” he said.
His attorney, Winit Narathippapa, said Suriyan was so afraid that his family was in danger that he had taken them to live in another province. He also had to run away from both drug dealers and officials.