Chakthip ready to talk to Paween but open to

It would be clear by the end of this week whether police would be filing any complaints against Paween, he added. 

“I can confirm that I’m ready to talk with Pol Maj-General Paween if he returns to the country and seeks a meeting with me. But I will ask him to speak the truth and reveal everything. I’m ready to forgive him,” he added.

“Pol Maj-General Paween should be thankful to me for finding a position for him when the Provincial Police Region 8 chief didn’t want him to continue in the office because of what he viewed as lack of discipline. So I asked the Southern Border Provinces Police Operation Centre [for Paween’s transfer],” Chakthip said. 

Paween, who quit the police force last month and is now seeking protection in Australia, had earlier told Australian media that he feared for his life because influential figures in the military and police implicated in the illicit trade wanted him dead. He also claimed to have received no protection from police bosses despite death threats faced by him. 

Chakthip said he had ordered his assistant Pol Lt-General Srivara Rangsibrahmanakul to visit the South, to check on the investigation into the case and ask the investigators in this human trafficking case, the victimising of Rohingya and other migrants, to determine whether they faced any threats.