Japan Asks Thailand To Punish Murder Suspect

[Buchholz]

Japan Asks Thailand to Punish Murder Suspect

Tokyo, Oct. 5 --Tokyo police have asked Thailand to punish a Thai national on the international wanted list on suspicion of killing a woman in Tokyo in March 1993, investigative sources said Friday. The Metropolitan Police Department made the request after receiving a notice in December 2011 from Thai law-enforcement authorities that the 40-year-old male was in Thailand and that his whereabouts had been confirmed.

The woman, Megumi Awaji, then 33, was found dead at her home in the busy Ikebukuro district of Toshima Ward, central Tokyo, on March 30, 1993. Awaji, who was stabbed in the neck, is believed to have been killed on March 14 that year.

Soon after the incident, a Thai man who had lived with her left Japan for Thailand. The Tokyo police obtained an arrest warrant for him from a Japanese court and put him on the international list.

Continued:

http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2012100500644

Jiji Press - Oct. 5, 2012

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[Buchholz]

Victim shown in Japanese news program:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpuKL7ouo78&feature=player_embedded#!

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[Travel2003]

Punish a suspect?

[rattler]

Punish or not I think the Thai govt should be punished it happened 19 years ago, or is that how long this take in the Thai justice system?

[uptheos]

Punish a suspect?

Exactly, the person hasn't had a trial yet.

"Tokyo police have asked Thailand to punish a Thai national on the international wanted list on suspicion of killing a woman in Tokyo in March 1993"

Mind you..............."come on down, the...................................................

[geriatrickid]

Suspect was approximately 20 at the time of the alleged crime. The victim was aged 33.

Know what I'm thinking?

[h90]

Punish or not I think the Thai govt should be punished it happened 19 years ago, or is that how long this take in the Thai justice system?

And usually courts decide. Usually the government does not punish people, they just make the laws.

At least it should be that way.

[Briggsy]

The Thai murder suspect has some connections here and has used them to avoid arrest or extradition. This is the point here.

[Buchholz]

The Thai murder suspect has some connections here and has used them to avoid arrest or extradition. This is the point here.

that's now changed...

Thai man arrested for murder in Japan 19 years ago

BANGKOK — A Thai man wanted for a murder committed in Japan 19 years ago has been arrested in southern Thailand, police said Monday. A Japanese court issued an arrest warrant in 1993 for Wirasak Iamphongsa in the death of Megumi Awaji in Tokyo that year.

Wirasak, 39, was apprehended on a bus in Nakhon Si Thammarat in southern Thailand on Sunday, police Col. Prasopchok Prommoon said. Wirasak, a former bar worker, told reporters on Monday that he killed the 33-year-old woman during a quarrel. He said he fled to Thailand the next day, taking some of her belongings with him.

"Saying sorry is just an empty word. It doesn't help to bring her back," he said. "I could be in jail for 30 or 40 years but I could still come out. Her life, however, can't come back." Wirasak will be prosecuted under Thailand's judicial system because the two countries do not have an extradition agreement.

Continues:

http://www.kens5.com/news/world/173099851.html

[Buchholz]

Thai police arrest alleged killer of Japanese woman

BANGKOK, Oct 8 – Thailand’s Crime Suppression Division arrested a Thai man alleged to have murdered a Japanese woman and escaped to Thailand for nearly 20 years.

Deputy CSD Commander Pol Col Prasobchok Prommoon announced at a news conference that Veerasak Iampongsa, 39, was apprehended for the premeditated murder nearly 20 years earlier while he was on a Bangkok-Trang bus when it reached the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat's Tung Song district.

Mr Veerasak allegedly murdered Awaji Megumi, then 33, in Japan and escaped to Thailand where he had been in hiding for 19 years and 7 months.

Japanese authorities cooperated with Thai authorities for the arrest.

The suspect confessed he knew the victim in early 1993 through his Japanese girlfriend, whom he had met in Bangkok and who later invited him to work at a bar in Japan.

The cause of the murder was alleged to be that they had argued about money and that the victim, with gambling problems, had looked down on Mr Veerasak, calling him a prostitute and spitting in his face.

The suspect stabbed the victim once and strangled her before taking her valuables.

Col Prasobchok said the case, whose statute of limitations will expire on March 14, was the first criminal case that Japanese authorities had sought cooperation through the Attorney General’s Office and was successful.

Without an extradition treaty, the Japanese government asked the Thai authorities to carry on with punishment in accord with Thai law, so the suspect will be tried in Thailand's Criminal Court.

-- TNA 2012-10-08

[Buchholz]

Additional coverage in the other paper this morning has additional information regarding Veerasak working as a male prostitute for women customers in Japan.

If he had managed to escape apprehension for just five more months, the 20 year statute of limitations would have removed the possibility for his arrest.

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Edited October 8, 2012 by Buchholz

[Buchholz]

Daily News (Thai)

http://www.dailynews.co.th/crime/159789

[Buchholz]

Thailand nabs suspect in 1993 murder

BANGKOK — A Thai murder suspect who escaped from Japan in 1993 was arrested Sunday while traveling by long-distance bus from Bangkok to his home in southern Thailand, police said Sunday.

Tracked through his mobile phone, Wirasak Iamphongsa, 40, was reportedly arrested at a gas station in the Thung Song district in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, some 80 km from his destination in Trang Province.

Wirasak is wanted by Japanese authorities for allegedly murdering a Japanese woman in the Ikebukuro area of Tokyo in 1993. Because Thailand has no extradition treaty with Japan, Wirasak will be prosecuted in a Thai criminal court, according to a senior police official. Megumi Iwaji, 33, was found dead in March 1993 a week after she was killed in her bed in the Ikebukuro apartment she shared with Wirasak.

Continued:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121009b1.html

The Japan Times - 2 hours ago‎

[jshorts]

Suspect was approximately 20 at the time of the alleged crime. The victim was aged 33.

Know what I'm thinking?

I have no idea what you are thinking. Is it supposed to be obvious?

[geriatrickid]

Suspect was approximately 20 at the time of the alleged crime. The victim was aged 33.

Know what I'm thinking?

I have no idea what you are thinking. Is it supposed to be obvious?

It is to anyone that has some life experience.

Here's a hint;

Additional coverage in the other paper this morning has additional information regarding Veerasak working as a male prostitute for women customers in Japan.

[Buchholz]

another hint:

Megumi Iwaji, 33, was found dead in March 1993 a week after she was killed in her bed in the Ikebukuro apartment she shared with Wirasak

It will be interesting to follow his trial.... (if it's not delayed until March, then dismissed).

,

[cdnski12]

Surely JApanese Investigators know that all they have to do is liberally spread a substantial number of well endowed bribes to the appropriate offices ... unless this murderer has very high connections?

[klauskunkel]

Surely JApanese Investigators know that all they have to do is liberally spread a substantial number of well endowed bribes to the appropriate offices ... unless this murderer has very high connections?

A male prostitute with very high connections...Yingluck?!?...surely not!

[kerrysum]

Surely JApanese Investigators know that all they have to do is liberally spread a substantial number of well endowed bribes to the appropriate offices ... unless this murderer has very high connections?

A male prostitute with very high connections...Yingluck?!?...surely not!

Don't know must be a genetic factor......

[webfact]

MURDER

Suspect in 1993 Japanese killing arrested in Thailand

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Crime Suppression Division has arrested a Thai man, who allegedly murdered a Japanese woman then fled the country and returned to Thailand where he has lived for almost 20 years.

Deputy CSD Commander Pol Col Prasobchok Prommoon announced at a news conference that Veerasak Iampongsa, 39, was apprehended in Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Tung Song district after travelling by bus from Bangkok to Trang.

Veerasak is wanted by the Japanese police for the 1993 murder of Awaji Megumi, then 33, in Japan. It is alleged that he committed the murder, which was pre-meditated, then escaped to Thailand where he lived in hiding since.

Japanese authorities cooperated with Thai authorities in the arrest.

The suspect confessed he met the victim in early 1993 through his Japanese girlfriend, whom he had met in Bangkok and who later invited him to work at a bar in Japan.

The two are alleged to have argued about money. The victim, who had gambling problems, looked down on Veerasak, calling him a prostitute and spat in his face.

The suspect is said to have stabbed the victim once and strangled her before taking her valuables.

Col Prasobchok said the case, whose statute of limitations will expire on March 14, was the first criminal case for which Japanese authorities had sought cooperation through the Attorney General's Office and was successful.

As the two countries have no extradition treaty, the Japanese government asked the Thai authorities to carry out punishment in accordance with Thai law, thus the suspect will be tried in Thailand’s Criminal Court.

-- The Nation 2012-10-09

[webfact]

Thai man arrested for Japanese murder 19 years ago

BANGKOK, Oct 9, 2012 (AFP) - A Thai man arrested in his home country for the murder of a Japanese woman in Tokyo almost two decades ago will be prosecuted in the kingdom's courts, an official said Tuesday.

Veerasak Iampongsa, 39, was detained at a bus terminal in southern Thailand on Sunday after a court issued a warrant for his arrest for the premeditated murder of 33-year-old Megumi Awaji in March 1993.

"The suspect will be prosecuted here in the Thai courts under the joint justice programme between Thailand and Japan," the deputy head of the Thai Crime Suppression Division, Colonel Prasobchok Prommoon, told AFP.

Japanese police asked their Thai counterparts in April to arrest Veerasak but there is no extradition treaty between the two countries.

At a news conference in Bangkok on Monday, Veerasak publicly confessed to killing Awaji while he was working in Japan. He said the pair were living together and quarrelled. He fled the country soon afterwards.

"I never forgot about it. I'm sorry and apologise to her relatives. I did it due to my short temper," he said.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2012-10-09

[Buchholz]

Thai man arrested for Japanese murder just before 20 year expiration of charges

A Thai man wanted for the 1993 murder of a woman in Japan was finally caught by police in his home country while traveling just outside of Bangkok. Having escaped from Japan that same year, 39 year-old Wirasak Iamphongsa was only five and a half months away from the 20 year limit for Japanese authorities to prosecute. While Thailand will prosecute him as a criminal, as it has no extradition treaty with Japan, had Wirasak not been apprehended by March 14th, 2013, he would have been off the hook.

After his capture, Wirasak admitted to killing 33 year-old Megumi Awaji in her bed after getting into a fight. He was working at a bar in Shinjuku at the time and shared an apartment with Awaji. Police discovered her body a week after she had been stabbed to death in March 1993. Wirasak fled the country the day after killing Awaji, taking some of her belongings to Thailand with him.

Police in Japan knew their 20 year statute of limitations was close to running out, so Tokyo detective Uichi Hara was dispatched to work with Thailand’s Crime Suppression Division to help find Wirasak. Thai prosecutors and authorities worked with the Japanese police and the evidence they provided, eventually tracking Wirasak on his mobile phone the day he was caught.

Continued:

http://japandailypress.com/thai-man-arrested-for-japanese-murder-just-before-20-year-expiration-of-charges-0915154

Japan Daily Press - Oct. 9, 2012

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[Sing_Sling]

"Police in Japan knew their 20 year statute of limitations was close to running out, so Tokyo detective Uichi Hara was dispatched to work with Thailand’s Crime Suppression Division to help find Wirasak."

So, for 19 years the Thai cops let it lie . . . then a Japanese cop comes along and suggests they do their job and - Bingo. He is found.

How does one spell Banana Republic?