PHUKET: Charges against the former Mayor of Patong, Pian Keesin, will be formally withdrawn by the Phuket Prosecutor at the request of police, taxi task force chief investigator Major General Paween Pongsirin said today.
Khun Pian was found dead at one of his homes in Phuket City yesterday. Charges against the 70-year-old and his sons Prab and Puen were due to be heard for the first time in a preliminary hearing at Phuket Provincial Court today.
Major General Paween, who has been investigating links to the taxi ''mafia'' and beach vendor extortion for several months, told Phuketwan today that the cases against the Keesins would be delayed as a mark of respect.
''This appears to be just a tragic coincidence,'' the major general said. ''It would not be proper for us to take the case further until after the cremation.''
Khun Pian is due to be farewelled in a ceremony at a Patong temple on October 18.
Major General Paween said the charge against Khun Prab involves the alleged importation of a car from Malaysia without the payment of tax.
The Toyota vehicle, valued at about three million baht, bore the number plate of a vehicle that had already been registered, the major general said.
Khun Pian was found dead at one of his homes in Phuket City yesterday. Charges against the 70-year-old and his sons Prab and Puen were due to be heard for the first time in a preliminary hearing at Phuket Provincial Court today.
Major General Paween, who has been investigating links to the taxi ''mafia'' and beach vendor extortion for several months, told Phuketwan today that the cases against the Keesins would be delayed as a mark of respect.
''This appears to be just a tragic coincidence,'' the major general said. ''It would not be proper for us to take the case further until after the cremation.''
Khun Pian is due to be farewelled in a ceremony at a Patong temple on October 18.
Major General Paween said the charge against Khun Prab involves the alleged importation of a car from Malaysia without the payment of tax.
The Toyota vehicle, valued at about three million baht, bore the number plate of a vehicle that had already been registered, the major general said.
Am I reading this correctly? The recently deceased man who has been a powerful figure in Patong for FORTY years, seeing it change from a sleepy town with gravel roads to what we see today had NO criminal part to play? Was he asleep at the wheel and didn't notice? Is this just the Thai way of 'dealing' with issues? I would say 'unbelievable' but unfortunately, it is par for the course. Which is EXACTLY why we have the absolute mess we see before us.
Posted by Mr Man on October 8, 2014 14:30
Editor Comment:
If you think there is some benefit in bringing a dead man before the courts, Mr Man, then please tell us where this has happened elsewhere and what sentences the dead are now serving. Your guesswork is based on assumptions and tinged with bigotry.