Police aiming at warrants to arrest Mae Hong Son governor and six others, Srivara says
POLICE are looking at arrest warrants for Mae Hong Son governor Suebsak Iamwichan and six other suspects this month for allegedly buying sex from girls under 18 in a forced prostitution ring, deputy national police |chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said yesterday.
Nine police have been dismissed from civil service and seven civilians taken into custody in connection with the Mae Hong Son prostitution scandal. Srivara said police would further investigate an allegation that officials from a tambon administrative organisation in Nonthaburi also used the girls’ sex service on a field trip to Mae Hong Son. He said police had found information to confirm that officials on the trip “stayed in the area where the prostitution ring’s girls frequently went to provide sex services”.
A source at the Muang Mae Hong Son Municipality had revealed that 26 officials from Bang Yai in Nonthaburi visited the province in a field trip last September and stayed at the resort in question, which was often cited as the place where the girls were sent to provide sex services with officials.
Ministry team will go back to finish probe
Several women who used to be in the prostitution ring said that when officials came for a visit from other provinces, they would be called in to provide sex services. They claimed that they had not wanted to go, as they wouldn’t be paid in full, but went because some local police had made threats to arrest them for prostitution if they refused.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister General Anupong Paochinda said a team led by a deputy permanent secretary would visit Mae Hong Son again soon to investigate officials’ alleged involvement in the case. He said a fact-finding probe against Suebsak had incomplete information so they would wait for the police inquiry result, because the |ministry had no capacity to examine evidence or remarks by people damaged by the |controversy.
The prostitution scandal has drawn huge media coverage recently after a 43-year-old former police informant came forward to seek justice for her teenage daughter, who was allegedly lured into taking drugs and coerced into sex work. The mother has implicated Suebsak, who has denied any wrongdoing. Police and other agencies have since launched several investigations into the |scandal.