New date set for murder verdict after ex-police officer fails to show up

Pol Colonel Montri Sriboonleu, 68, was one of six defendants in the case over the 2004 killing of a 17-year-old motorcycle theft suspect.
The guarantor for Montri’s Bt1-million bail release was fined the sum in full, when the judge ruled that the no-show at Bangkok’s Ratchadapisek Criminal Court demonstrated flight intent.
Others defendants were present – three former policemen brought from remand prison and two former policemen who have been released on bail. 
The verdict reading was postponed to October 11.
In July 2012, the primary court had sentenced Pol Senior Sgt-Major Angkan Khammulna, 54; Pol Senior Sgt-Major Sudtinan Noanting, 49; and Pol Senior Sgt-Major Pansil Uppanant, 48; to death for premeditated murder and for concealing the body.
The primary court also sentenced Montri to seven years in jail for abusing his authority to help others avoid punishment, Pol Lt-Colonel Sumit Nansathit, 51, was given a life sentence for conspiring to murder, while Pol Lt-Colonel Sampao Indee, 57, was acquitted. 
In July 2015, the Court of Appeals upheld the death sentences for Angkan and Pansil, but commuted Sudtinan’s sentence to life in prison thanks to his useful confession. The court also changed Sampao’s earlier acquittal to life imprisonment. 
The Appeals Court also commuted Montri and Sumit’s sentences to five years in jail. After this verdict, Sampao, Montri and Sumit were released on a Bt1-million bail guarantee, while those facing death and life imprisonment were sent to the Bangkok Remand Prison.
According to the lawsuit, Angkan, Sudtinan, Pansil and Sumit were accused of strangling Kiatisak Titboonkrong, a 17-year-old suspect in a case of motorcycle theft case, in Kalasin on July 22, 2004. The six defendants then allegedly moved the boy’s body to a shack in a paddy field in Roi Et to make it look like Kiatisak had hanged himself. 
Sumit and Montri allegedly intimidated the victim’s relatives from July 30, 2004 to April 27, 2005, after they had lodged a complaint suspecting foul play, the lawsuit said.
After the Criminal Court’s verdict was postponed yesterday, Kiatisak’s aunt Pikul said she was worried whether all the defendants – a few of whom were still on active police duty – would show up for the October 11 session and admitted she had been living in fear.
Pikul revealed that she had sued the Rights and Liberties Protection Department chief and his deputies at the Administrative Court for failing to perform their duty and for discrimination. The agency had decided her claim of being intimidated failed to qualify her for a witness protection programme, she said.