Police Suspect In Sondhi Limthongkul Shooting To Surrender

[george]

Police suspect in Sondhi Limthongkul shooting to surrender

By John Le Fevre

BANGKOK (thaivisa.com): -- A police corporal named as a suspect in the attempted assassination of People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) leader Sondhi Limthongkul, has said he will surrender to investigators in the next couple of days.

Corporal Worawut Mungsanti, a member of the Narcotics Suppression Bureau, informed deputy national police chief General Thanee Somboonsap that he will report to authorities after he was dismissed from the police force yesterday for being absent without leave for 15-days.

At the same time, a second suspect wanted over the failed assassination attempt, Sergeant Major Panya Srihera from the army Special Warfare Centre (SWC) at Lop Buri, is reported to have told his superiors he had nothing to do with the shooting.

On Tuesday the Criminal Court approved the issue of arrest warrants for Worawut and Panya for the April 17 attack, charging the two with premeditated murder, attempted murder, possession of military weapons, carrying firearms without a licence, and illegal assembly.

According to sources close to Panya’s superiors, the missing Sergeant Major claims he was working as a gardner at the house of former army chief Chettha Thanajaro, on the orders of his superior, Colonel Sunai Prapuchaney, when the attack took place.

Investigators are waiting to compare the two suspects' fingerprints with the 10 samples collected from a dark purple pick-up truck believed used in the attack on Sondhi.

Thanee, who is also the lead investigator on the case, said the fingerprints found on the vehicle did not match any of the five to six million held on the criminal database.

Police Major General Surapol Pinijchob, chief of the Scientific Crime Detection Division, said forensic tests had also failed to detect any gunpowder residue in the vehicle, claiming this was due to the time between the crime having been committed and the when the tests were conducted.

He said once the two suspects had been apprehended, their DNA will be compared with samples found in the truck.

-- thaivisa.com 2009-07-18