Child sex ring: Mae Hong Song governor transferred for ‘public confidence’
Interior Minister General Anupong Paochinda has said the transfer of Mae Hong Song governor Suebsak Iamwichan to his ministry aims to relieve community doubts as the investigation into the northern province's child prostitution ring continues.
Anupong said the ministry's fact-finding committee had interviewed people in the province but had only received partial information because its members did not have access to the victims and witnesses, whom officials were protecting.
He said the committee would have to wait to see the details of the police investigation.
He said he had discussed the matter with Interior Ministry permanent secretary Kritsada Boonrat and deputy permanent secretary Prayoon Rattanaseni and concluded that given Suebsak had been implicated in the scandal, it was best to transfer him while the investigations continued, effective Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, some 350 officials, private sector representatives and other members of the public saw off Suebsak when he left the province for Bangkok, where he will serve a new duty..
The move followed a 43-year-old former police informant filing a police complaint in which she claimed her teenage daughter was blackmailed into working as a prostitute after she was exposed to drugs.
The mother alleged high-ranking officials in the province, including the governor, were customers of the prostitution ring her daughter was involved in.
Suebsak has maintained his innocence.