THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
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Conwoman Ying Kai faces long stretch behind bars

Conwoman Ying Kai faces long stretch behind bars

Conwoman Monta “Ying Kai” Yokratanakan’s latest jail term of seven years and six months this week over a lese majeste charge means that the 61-year-old will have to serve a total combined sentence of “17 years and 12 months” (in legal language) when previous court judgements are taken into account.

But Monta might serve even more jail time than that, as a decision in another lawsuit was postponed until March 12. She is facing a charge of filing a faulty police complaint accusing her former maid, Prapawan “Goi” Jaikla, 18, and the girl’s parents of stealing valuables.
On Monday morning, Monta was brought from the Central Women’s Correctional Institution to Bangkok’s Ratchadapisek Criminal Court to hear the verdict on the charge of violating the Criminal Code’s Section 112.
This case referred to her alleged claim between mid-2010 and mid-2015 that she was a “Khunying” (a royally-granted title) to a Lao woman identified only as Kabkaew, who was also allegedly tricked into forced labour by Monta.
Monta retracted her plea of not guilty and made a confession to the lese majeste charge on Monday. In the afternoon, she was told she should be sentenced to 15 years behind bars but that was halved due to her confession.
In an earlier lese majeste case, Monta was sentenced to seven years and six months on June 6, 2017, after she changed her plea to guilty on charges of claiming on three occasions in 2012 to be entitled to be called a Khunying.
On October 19, 2017, she was also sentenced to three years behind bars in a human-trafficking case over her coercion of a young woman to work as her maid.
Monta has been in the headlines since early 2016 when her maid Prapawan sought help from a volunteer lawyer to defend herself and her parents against Monta’s complaint to Prachacheun police that they had stolen Bt10 million worth of gold bars and cash in March 2015. The maid said the theft allegation was made because she had refused Monta’s offer to work abroad.
However, later that year, Prapawan was hit with an arrest warrant and detained for three months despite her claims of innocence.
As news broke about that case, several other former employees of Monta stepped forward alleging that they had been falsely accused of crimes

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