Widow seeks justice for husband's murder
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Nearly nine years after activist Charoen Wat-aksorn was shot dead at a seaside town he was trying to protect from corruption, his widow feels justice has yet to be delivered.
“I don’t think my late husband was killed because of any personal conflict with the gunmen, it was about his move to expose encroachment on public land,” Korn-uma Pongnoi said.
She now plans to invite public prosecutors and Court of Appeals representatives this Sunday to a seminar, following the recent court verdict on her husband’s case.
Earlier this week, Korn-uma led about 300 supporters to the public prosecutors’ office in Bangkok’s Ratchadaphisek area to protest against the verdict. The move took place in the wake of the Appeals Court’s decision to let off the hook the man convicted by the lower court of being the mastermind behind Charoen’s murder.
Charoen, who chaired the Bo Nok Conservation Group, was returning to his hometown in Prachuap Khiri Khan when two gunmen opened fire on him on June 21, 2004. Witnesses said that despite Charoen’s plea for mercy, the gunmen shot him a number of times in the head, face and torso, as he got off a public bus from Bangkok.
He had been in the capital to testify to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) in a case concerning a number of influential people, who were accused of encroaching on a vast plot of public land.
Witnesses identified Saneh Lekluan and Prachuab Hinkaew as the gunmen. The two suspects, who personally knew Charoen, told police that Thanu Hinkaew had hired them to carry out the killing. During interrogation, Thanu implicated Prachuap Khiri Khan Administrative Organisation councillor Manoch Hinkaew and a former kamnan, Chua Hinkaew.
Both Saneh and Prachuap died behind bars in 2006, before they had a chance to testify. In 2008, the Criminal Court convicted Thanu based on testimonies given during their lifetimes and the fact that Thanu stood to benefit if Charoen’s campaign for transparency was unsuccessful. Chua and Manoch were found not guilty.
In a recent development that caused an uproar, the Court of Appeals decided to overturn the lower court’s verdict last month. Without the presence of Saneh and Prachuab during the trial, the Court of Appeals decided to drop the conviction against Thanu.
