THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Camronwit's lawyer to meet Japanese prosecutors

Camronwit's lawyer to meet Japanese prosecutors

A LAWYER representing former metropolitan police chief Lt-General Camronwit Toopkrajank, who was found carrying a handgun in his hand luggage prior to boarding a flight from Japan, will meet Japanese public prosecutors today, when they are expected to say

The Thai Embassy in Tokyo reported that the Japanese police had interrogated Camronwit for a second time yesterday. If the prosecutors decide to take the case to court, he will be able to decide the direction of his defence.

In that event, he could propose bail or, if the case is dropped, he could return home.
Thai police spokesman Maj-General Prawut Thawornsiri said in Bangkok yesterday that the ongoing legal process would require Camronwit to be in custody for at least 20 days.
“The penalty of trying to have a gun on board is one to 10 years [in jail], while the penalty for having munitions on board is three to 10 years. The ongoing legal process will require Lt-General Camronwit to be in Japanese custody for at least 20 days.” The spokesman cited a report from the Thai Embassy in Japan as saying that Camronwit was arrested at 5pm on Monday at Narita as he was about to board a flight back to Thailand.
Japanese police found a small revolver in a handbag he was carrying.
The embassy certified to the Japanese side that the suspect had travelled to Japan on an observation trip related to a garbage-fuelled power plant at the invitation of the Japanese authorities. 
The trip comprised about 80 people.
The initial report said Camronwit admitted the weapon belonged to him, and that he had it loaded in his luggage when he left Bangkok.
But on the return trip, he put it in a medicine bag, which he then placed in his handbag.
Prawut said Camronwit had forgotten the gun was in the medicine bag.
Thai police had issued a certificate to say that Camronwit is retired senior police officer, who had no record of improper weapons usage.
Police chief Pol General Somyot Poompun-muoung has ordered that full help be afforded to Camronwit. 
However, the legal process has to be conducted in accordance with Japanese laws, which are very strict about such offences, he said.
Prawut stressed that the weapon in question had been legally registered and Camronwit had been in possession of it for a long time before he retired. “The gun is very small, a little bigger than a car key chain,” he said.
Prawut said the small gun may not have been noticed in the X-ray machine prior to his departure from Bangkok if it was in a vertical position when the bag was scanned at Suvarnabhumi Airport. 
“Initial examination of the security cameras and X-ray machines found that Camronwit walked past the security system and Immigration by himself. It is not true that somebody was carrying his bag, as he completed the whole process by himself,” the spokesman explained.
He said he personally believed that Camronwit had genuinely forgotten that he had the gun in his bag, as he was now an elderly man who could be easily be forgetful.
However, it is now up to the Japanese side to decide whether it will believe Camronwit’s claim that he had no intention of carrying the gun on board.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said in Bangkok that he did not think Camronwit’s case would have a negative impact on Thailand amidst the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s ongoing safety concerns about the Thai aviation sector.
He was speaking in response to a question asking whether the Thai airport’s security screening may be lax enough to have let Camronwit carry a gun without being noticed, and whether the case reflected the inadequacy of Thai |aviation security systems more generally.
Prayut said Camronwit’s case should be considered as an individual occurrence, and the whole system should not be judged by just this one instance.
Meanwhile, Camronwit’s son Trilup Toopkrajank had already left Bangkok for Tokyo to bring documents to certify Camronwit’s ownership of the gun with the Japanese police.
Sirote Duangratana, general manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport, yesterday stressed that the investigation into the security footage on the day Camronwit boarded a flight to Japan did not show that he was carrying a gun with him. 
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