Chuwit ready for the worst over 2003 bar raid
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AS THE Supreme Court was set to rule on the case of a notorious raid in which roadside beer bars were razed in downtown Bangkok in January 2003, former MP Chuwit Kamolvisit showed up yesterday outside the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court carrying a plastic
This gesture wasn’t meant as a mockery, because he was prepared for the worst – even being jailed, the Rak Thailand Party leader said.
However, the Supreme Court postponed delivering its verdict to October 15 on grounds that only 39 defendants were present.
Four defendants, including Major Thanyathep Thammathorn, a former military officer at the 11th Infantry Battalion, did not provide sound reasons for not showing up, so the court issued arrest warrants for them.
The Court of Appeals had sentenced Chuwit and 65 accomplices to five years in jail over the pre-dawn raid, in which dozens of men using backhoes forced bar owners out of the 10-rai (1.6-hectare) “Sukhumvit Square” on Sukhumvit Soi 10.
At the time of the raid, Chuwit was a massage-parlour tycoon and an executive at Sukhumvit Silver Star.
The Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s ruling to acquit the 64 other defendants.
Initially, the Criminal Court acquitted most defendants in the case, including Chuwit, Lt-Colonel Himalai Phiewphan, who was a military officer attached to the Armed Forces Development in 2003, and Thanyathep in 2006. Only a lawyer, Chanwet Malaibucha, was given an eight-month jail term.
