sambum

They would not have been forced to sign anything. It would all have been written in Thai, but they should have refused to sign it.

Admittedly, they were probably scared not to sign it, because they would not have been aware of the system.

Let's hope it all gets put to bed now, but don't be surprised if everything is not dropped.

I imagine somebody will be successfully prosecuted, for an obscure offence, with a paltry fine, in order for the B.I.B. to save some face.

the woman who did not sign was kept in custody ...

Well done that woman

It's a shame the 2 Koh Tao Burmese guys signed a false declaration for the murders they didnt commit. Once again shame on you Thailand.

The incentive given by the BIB in many cases seems to be that you will not be released until you sign a statement of guilt. If you are not guilty, you can (try to) retract that statement later in court.

Yes, thanks Nova.

With so much on this, that is the first I have heard regarding what I assume is there defiantly will be no court case from someone in the know.

What happened was totally outrageous, particularly as if true that the Police and "others" had to dig deep into their law books to find and outdated law to "trump Up" charges against the players.

This seems akin to a medieval witch hunt based on false allegations, lucky they did not get out the ducking stool or it modern equivalent the water board to get confessions.

And thanks to Pattaya One for bringing us the story.

" there defiantly will be no court case" I like it! In fact, I definitely like it!

As I pointed out in another thread Spellcheckers have an IQ of zero.

and I did qualify that statement with "I assume"...

I still like it!

Is there any compelling evidence against this guy that directly links him to the murder and dismembermentdna, fingerprints, weapon?

Transferring money from the dead guys account does not automatically suggest he killed the bloke.

It doesn't mean that he killed him, but it does "suggest" that he has something to hide!

Agree why would he make a run for it if he has nothing to hide.

I would !

But, is it common practice for an embassy to attend a questioning???

That sounds odd to me. Would it mean that the guy may not be guilty... or at least that they may have some doubts?

Bearing in mind the grisly circumstances of the murder of a Spanish citizen by (supposedly) another Spanish citizen, and the reputation of the RTP for their meticulous attention to detail, I would suggest that other Embassies should follow suit when their citizens are in trouble, even if it's just for playing cards!

Yes, thanks Nova.

With so much on this, that is the first I have heard regarding what I assume is there defiantly will be no court case from someone in the know.

What happened was totally outrageous, particularly as if true that the Police and "others" had to dig deep into their law books to find and outdated law to "trump Up" charges against the players.

This seems akin to a medieval witch hunt based on false allegations, lucky they did not get out the ducking stool or it modern equivalent the water board to get confessions.

And thanks to Pattaya One for bringing us the story.

" there defiantly will be no court case" I like it! In fact, I definitely like it!

Is there any compelling evidence against this guy that directly links him to the murder and dismemberment…dna, fingerprints, weapon?

Transferring money from the dead guys account does not automatically suggest he killed the bloke.

It doesn't mean that he killed him, but it does "suggest" that he has something to hide!

For once I can say of the RTP, good job.

SIHANOUKVILLE: Police in Cambodia have arrested the main suspect in the murder of a Spanish businessman whose dismembered body was found in the Chao Phraya river last week

This is going to be a good story i can tell. If pressure is put on the court to drop the case the police lose face, if the old folks get prosecuted all hell will break lose in the international press world. It's a lose lose situation for Thailand and the guy who initiated this farce must be squirming in a corner right now.

And quite rightly so! He should be sacked for making such an uninformed decision, resulting in such a huge waste of resources that should be being used to find some proper criminals (and I presume there will be many) in Pattaya. But that won't happen as he has probably bought his position, so the best we can hope for is a move to an inactive post, with maybe an additional punishment being a hundred lines (a traditional punishment in UK schools):- "I must not raid bridge parties".

Actually, compared to most of the world the Thai people do seem to be quite content and happy.

Certainly seem happier than the teenagers/twentysomethings down the main street in my "home town" in the UK who seem more intent on finding a reason to kick each others heads in on a weekend!

Pathetic, disgraceful, shameful, outrageous, ridiculous . Don´t these police have anything better to do ? The Pattaya police are now a laughing stock of the universe.

I totally agree. Totally.

I would only note that, as I guess most would now agree in hindsight, it would have better to have checked w/ the police first and explained what was going to happen w/ 32 people playing cards at 8 tables, and get clearance, maybe a written clearance, before they started this up. I would have; just seems an obvious need to me, as I've lived here for many years. With the mentality and the ignorance here, not to mention odd laws enforced inconsistently, a "bust" was very likely to happen. Sorry it did to these fine folks.

Maybe somebody has made this point, don't have time to read the whole thread.

I think that they have been playing Bridge legally in Thailand for years, so understandably, they didn't think it was necessary to " have checked w/ the police first and explained what was going to happen w/ 32 people playing cards at 8 tables".

No, I think that the Police and Army should have checked first!!! Once again, this whole fiasco is all a matter of "saving face " for somebody fairly high up the ladder who thought that it was an illegal gambling den, and made a rash decision to raid the place with more than 50 personnel.

Realising the mistake, (probably sooner rather than later) this high ranking officer had to get his people to "scour the law books" to try to find some form of wrongdoing in order to justify to his superiors that he had made a correct choice, rather than just say "Sorry - we have been given some wrong information", and walked away, which would of course have been the sensible/logical thing to do.

" Maybe somebody has made this point, don't have time to read the whole thread." Same, same!

Anyone who eats meat, eggs, or dairy products really has no right to be offended at the Japanese action or the dolphin hunt depicted in the film.

I have to agree with you! People are upset just because it's about dolphins, people around the world hunt elk, deer, birds and so on and no one is protesting that because it's in our western culture and traditions!

And also the industrial growth of pig, chicken and so on is the same or even worse than this:

In Europe, US and basically everywhere where the animals can be transported several days thru several countries/states for slaughter.

To produced 1 kg of framed salmon you need about 2 kg wildcatch fish. After "harvest" the salmon in Norway is sent to China by air fright to save money on the processing?!

Chickens are sexed at about 1 week, the male chicks are usually killed as they will lay no eggs and produces less meat than a female broiler.

These are just some examples of how the animals are treated and resources wasted to produce the animals that we think are OK to eat!

Without coming down on on Animal Rights campaigners I love the pun - deliberate or not :-

"air fright"

The money was for bail and will be returned.

I thought playing cards either for money or not was illegal. Someone should send this to the Daily Mail…they would have a field day with it. Don't you think that with all the crime going on in Thailand that breaking up a bridge club was one of the lower priorities. Who sets the priorities for the BiB anyway, if it politicians then we need to look at the quality of the politicians, and if it is the BiB commanders then we need to replace them.

I thought prostitution was illegal too.

Technically, but actually regulated under the law. Raids on girls soliciting and bars not following the regulations are frequent.

"The money was for bail and will be returned". When they are old and grey? Oh, sorry they already are! When they were forced to confess to gambling before being released? One woman refused, and hasn't been seen or heard of since!

Sorry to spoil your fun but my wife called me to the TV this morning to watch this news item. A LOT of money was found on the premises which is why there were 50 friends and helpers investigating.

Its a restaurant, they sell food and drink. Most of any money would be theirs.

The rented space would contain no money related to the bridge players since its duplicate bridge, played by almost every country in the world, where there is no gambling involved.

There might have been a small amount that is collected before the game from each player to pay expenses.

I imagine (and hope) that you are correct. The fact remains that there must be a compelling reason for over 50 police to have turned up.

"Over 50 officers stormed the premises and found 8 tables and 32 foreign nationals, consisting of 26 men and 6 women who were playing the popular card game “Bridge”."

Compelling Reason = 32 x 5000 baht = 160,000 baht

Nuff said?

I thought the daul pricing at these so called tourist attractions were used to cover security costs. charging an entrance fee to visit and spend your money here will do way more harm than good. Then TAT will be forced to makeup more lies of why tourist number are low.

"I thought the daul pricing at these so called tourist attractions were used to cover security costs. charging an entrance fee to visit and spend your money here will do way more harm than good"

Sorry, I don't understand what you're getting at - "dual pricing" to me means that tourists are paying more in entrance fees than Thais, so an entrance fee is already being charged, no?

Answer to your question... YES! 10 Times more!

Example: If my wife would be asked to pay 10Baht.... I would be required to pay 100Baht!!! If she paid 100Baht... I would be required to pay 1000Baht... Understand?

The last time this happened my wife showed her ID Card paid her entry fee. I was asked for my Passport then required to pay the Inflated fee. My wife then asked why she was not required to pay the same as me, showing them her American Passport. Cashier said she was... She showed cashier both receipts.. They demanded them back, which she refused. We were followed to gate and she was refused entry. We had with us a Major Royal Thai Police (Family related) He identified himself,interceded... My fee has reduced... Go figure!

This is not here say... Actual fact!!!

Yes, I do understand thank you! I can quite believe that it's not "here say" hearsay! I believe that it's called "nepotism", and that kind of "preferential" treatment happens all over the world, but does seem to be more prevalent in some countries more than others.

I am not defending the system in any way (which I think is all wrong to charge visitors/tourists 10 times more, by the way!) The point I was making was merely that they are already charging an entrance fee, so this statement is a bit ambiguous:-

"charging an entrance fee to visit and spend your money here will do way more harm than good"

Understand?

This actually made the national TV news, even had the police video. A bunch of confused old folks playing Bridge.

Unclear what crime was committed, anyone know?

The offense relates to Section 8 of the Playing Cards Act of 1935 which states that an individual is not allowed to possess more than 120 playing cards at any one time. At the Bridge event, considerably more than 120 playing cards were found by officers.

Unbelievable! The Bridge Club does not consist of an individual!

What kind of rental bike costs $5000 to fix?

If it wasn't a 650cc kawasaki or something similar has getting raped by that rental company....

He's gonna woo the women on a Honda Click? He probably did have a Harley or something similar!

While I do detest the heavy handed nature of this junta I find Jatuporn to be an absolute cretin.

The thing is both sides will need to break bread for true reconciliation but it will just never happen.

They are all cretins. Nothing to choose between any of them. The only competition is who can keep their snouts in the trough for longest.

Being going on for decades and not likely to change anytime soon.

As happened during the unrest in Bangkok, pre junta days, when one leader decides to go in disguise into an opponent's camp to effect an arrest, and the opponent suggests a fist fight to decide matters, then your opening statement is bang on!

Manrak,what world to you live in,obviously a closeted one.To say that drugs and alcohol dont change a persons nature.HA! so!youve never been out with

the guy that you thought was a nice person until he got a few drinks down him and wanted to fight every body?Youve never seen a guy turn on his best friend when pissed?.

Even women have the ability to change into foul mouthed haridans when under the influence ,(i should know,i was married to one).

You can believe this or not,i really dont care.I cant reveal my name on here.But i was the ex husband of a woman who was murdered in South East London years ago

And her new husband,who was a wonderful,mild mannered man,decapitated the bitch.This was all through alcohol.His nature certainly changed,didnt it?.It went national

and the papers had a bit of a thing with it.That was some 20 odd years ago.Please dont tell me that drugs and alcohol dont change peoples nature.You have absolutely no idea.AnAnd to say such a thing is both immature and stupid. Youve obviously not been around enough.I lived in the real world.I am available for comment if anyone wants to start

a conversation with me.

KKD

Totally agree Dave. Ask anyone whose ever worked security or bars in nightclubs. You can watch the changes alcohol induces. Peoples features change as their muscle and nervous system controls become relaxed. The behavioral changes can be small, medium or quite drastic as drugs effect different people differently.

It was mainly alcohol in my day, drugs being much less common than now. But the changes in people's personality and behavior when pissed could be extreme and sometimes very violent.

Also agree. I know of one individual who is an exremely affable person when sober, and the same when drinking beer, but give him one glass of spirits and stand clear and wait for the explosion!

Off topic post removed, there are plenty topics about Samui garbage problem, use them.

The headline says "Koh Samui" and "garbage", so the topic is related.

After the garbage is collected from the beach where does it end up?

The murder and rape is horrendous...

And so to is their lame excuse for doing it...

Hear, hear! All too often the cause for the most horrendous of crimes is to use the old excuse that the perpetrators were under the influence of drugs/alcohol at the time, and that "they should not be punished for their crimes - they need help." To this I say B**l S**t!

Maybe I'm being a bit old fashioned, but nobody forced THEM to stick a needle in their arm, or forced them to smoke whatever it is that turns them into monsters. They don't need help - they need a bit of attitude adjustment of the most severe kind that would leave other drug addicts in no doubt what the consequences will be for rape and murder.

Now this is without a doubt, a very just and propositional damages award to someone who was fired

from her job.... but why only 31 millions? what's wrong with 310 millions? the latter is as ludicrous

as much the former.....

a smaller amount would had being peanuts for Walmart and more profitable to keep doing what they were doing, for the action to be punitive it would have to be substantial .

anyway , Walmart will appeal, if any award is ever collected it will be years from now.

I agree with it needing to be a large amount to be punitive, but 31M awarded to the woman is ridiculous. Give her a mill and let the rest be a fine that the state gets.

Are damage costs in the US tax deductible by the way?

It is unfortunate that there is such disproportionate distribution of wealth in our society now days, but 31m is not really a lot of money Walmart posted $130,24 Billion gross profits for 2015 , This award , that is not final by the way, is a very small percentage of an annual gross profit. if their behavior increased their profit margin by only 2% even with this award it would be far more profitable to continue doing what they were doing. and as you said it tax delectable, As I said this award is not final, it will be tied in the courts for many many years and make many lawyers rich..

"31m is not really a lot of money" Wouldn't mind it in my bank account! I agree with the poster who said that the woman should get 1m and the rest go the state, or if not the state, then to some deserving cause or charity. These outrageous awards are one reason why there IS "such disproportionate distribution of wealth in our society", and I am not a "Yank basher", but the States is probably one of the prime offenders where common sense goes out of the window when money starts talking.

And P.S. - I love that expression "tax delectable"

What? They "asked" them to bend the rules, and they didn't "order" them to? What is the world coming to?

"“We would like Google to expedite the process of website removal once it is requested by qualified authorities to save from the possible damage of time, as it will not correct the situation if we wait for the court process,” (Didn't take the courts long to try and convict the lady boy who threw his flatmate's cat out of the window!)

So they want Google to become subservient to the junta ("qualified authorities") and remove anything that is considered critical of the PM or his decisions? That is a bit like the UK government asking Google not to publish any articles that are critical of fox hunting! Perhaps they would also like the BBC to air "Bringing happiness back to (99%) of the people" every Friday night, preferably just after "The 6 o'clock News" and then again by ITV just after "News at Ten"!

Is anybody else getting fed up of seeing these "so as not to offend" decisions, usually in reference to people from a particular religious denomination?

And I have yet to see any decision taken "so as not to offend Christians"

P.S. I'm an atheist!

If he doesn't want to see the exhibits in the museum, then don't force him to visit the museum.

If he doesn't want to see people drinking wine at a dinner, then don't force him to attend a dinner.

I would prefer that the word "ask" be substituted for "force", but I did give your post a "Like"!

No different to having a ghost exorcised from a Government building!

Count me in. Im happy to pay the $10 each time I enter. In fact <deleted> it charge $100.

I'd rather give Thailand $10 than give the UK it to support all those <deleted> sponging oxygen thief immigrants.

Ah, the racist bigot jumps in with their nonsensical BS.

Took a while but you can always rely on the bigots to puke up their hate.

Spell check seems to have improved their spelling as well.

Pity their is no rational thinking check on devices.

Would certainly cut down on the number of hate posts we see.

Took a while?

22 Jan it was posted not 2 days later like you belster

Well what's wrong with not wanting to support freeloaders, Bluespunk?

I think the vast majority of Europeans disapprove of giving fake refugees everything while their citizens get kicked out of their own homes. Altruism has to have it's limits. Europe and the west in general is not the savior of the entire developing world. They should look after themselves and we should stop allowing them into our societies to feed off the taxes paid by hard working natural born citizens.

Also it's "there" not "their". Seems like grammar isn't your strong point is it there, mr Bluespunk?

I disagree with this tax, but I suppose it's just another way (if it ever gets implemented) of Thailand supporting it's own citizens first and foreigners second. In the west, foreigners seem to come first and locals second. I wonder why there is still even a visa system in place in Europe. Now with "refugees" coming freely, I think they should just abandon the whole visa and passport thing for all given they have already abandoned it for refugees. If you ask me, it's an insult that Thais require a visa to go to Europe, while Europeans don't need one to come to Thailand, not to mention refugees who don't have any documentation at all who can just criss-cross Europe freely.

The way things are going in Europe, there will soon be an exodus of Europeans coming to Thailand and other similar countries like Vietnam and Cambodia.

"Spell check seems to have improved their spelling as well."

"Pity their is no rational thinking check on devices"

"Also it's "there" not "their". Seems like grammar isn't your strong point is it there, mr Bluespunk?"

See #Post 338