Chuwit casts doubt on assessment of attacker by police

Thepthat Boonpattananont, Chuwit’s male secretary, who needed 17 stitches for a wound to the side of his head, has already returned to Bangkok.

Pol Colonel Kritsakorn Pleethanyawong showed the initial mental health result for Khamla Mungmee to confirm that it was an assault by a mentally ill person, rather than a politically motivated attack targeting Chuwit. The certificate said she had a mental illness and should be further assessed and treated at Songkhla Rajanakarin Psychiatric Hospital. She was initially charged with assault, he said.

Chuwit told a press conference in Bangkok yesterday he questioned the police’s ability to establish that the woman had a mental illness within two hours. He urged police to follow legal procedures, as in the case of a woman who stabbed four St Joseph schoolgirls in 2005. He urged national police chief Pol General Priewpan Damapong to help with this case, as it took place while he and the House committee on police were inspecting illegal casinos operating in Hat Yai.