Court orders tests on elephant tusks from Premchai’s home

By The Nation

 

 

The Criminal Court on Monday agreed to a request to examine elephant tusks confiscated from the house of construction tycoon Premchai Kanasuta in April.

 

Mahildol University’s Veterinary Faculty has been ordered to check whether the two sets of tusks were from domestic elephants and determine their age.

 

Public prosecutors have charged Premchai, his wife Kanita, 64, and her aide Wandee Sompoom, 71, with unauthorised possession of protected-wildlife carcasses, smuggling and concealment of smuggled objects. The defendants have denied all charges and were bailed for Bt300,000.

 

The prosecutors suspected that the tusks were from domestic elephants, while Kanitha claimed that they were from Africa and were inherited from her late mother 30 years ago.

 

The defendants were at Court yesterday.

 

Kanita’s lawyer asked the Court to test whether the tusks were from Thai elephants and their ages.

 

The defendant was ordered to pay Bt5,000 for the testing fee.

 

The confiscation of the tusks resulted from an expansion of the initial investigation after the arrest of Premchai, along with his close aides and cook, in early February for allegedly poaching in Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in Kanchanaburi province.

 

At his campsite, officials found carcasses of protected animals including a black leopard. The arrest caught the country’s attention, partly due to Premchai’s social status and his company’s series of government contracts. Commentators wondered whether the billionaire with close connections to influential people would be convicted and punished.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30356047

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-10-8

And on it goes. 

A Mahidol professor earns peanuts. So definitely Premchai will get the answer he wants and a professor will get a couple of years salary. 

1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

Court orders tests on elephant tusks from Premchai’s home

What about the dump he took near his truck? Have they tested that yet for panther penis DNA like they said they would.

The tape recording which supposedly proved bribery of park rangers has gone missing. Maybe the dump has vanished as well. Soon there will be no evidence left at all. 

Ultimately he could be awarded compensation for all the inconvenience he has been put through. I jest not.

Sadly this is going to end the way we all expect, members of the Justice system will get their bonuses and Thailand will go on being Thailand.

Dragging their heels on this aren't they. This testing was called for 6 months back. The cops are scared stiff to prosecute this sub-human CEO.

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

were inherited from her late mother 30 years ago

 

That elephants penis soup is still the toast of family gatherings.

 

So that be Changkok ?

Give in a bit longer and it will be "What tusks, what panther?" 

"Oh, the tusks are actually plastic! Case dismissed!"

2 hours ago, Pedrogaz said:

Dragging their heels on this aren't they. This testing was called for 6 months back. The cops are scared stiff to prosecute this sub-human CEO.

In this two-tiered justice system:
'Justice for the elite' = stretching out the proceeding long enough to trip the statue of limitation on the case.  Simply look at the cop killing Red Bull heir.  Justice by non-prosecution.  It's a travesty, but it's the way of the world, especially here in the LOS.

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

inherited from her late mother 30 years ago.

Yet another "dead friend" I'm going to have to remember this one as my get out clause.

Could'a swore I read this a few months back 

I must be reading the wrong newspaper: months ago, short after those tusks were confiscated, it wrote that a bill for the tusks purchase had been found, and that it was not an old one...

Go figure. 

I've been here, turn to the next page...once you get to Thai billionaire with important connections, there is no need to go further and save the print, nothing will come of this.