Two men arrested with him – a driver and a hunter – also received prison sentences and fines.Ī still-unresolved case involving another of Thailand's richest families is that of Vorayuth Yoovidhya, an heir to the fortune of the family that part-owns the Red Bull drinks company. In addition to his prison sentence, he was ordered to pay a share of a 2 million baht ($59,700) fine. Premchai was convicted on several charges including poaching and carrying weapons without a permit. The panther had been butchered and its meat cooked up for soup. Park rangers found guns and the carcasses of a number of animals nearby including a black panther. Premchai was arrested at night at a campsite deep within the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that's listed for its rare flora and fauna. The poaching incident in February 2018 caused widespread outrage. Court staff said that after the court appearance, he was taken directly to begin his sentence at a nearby prison. He arrived wearing a bandage over one eye, though it wasn’t clear why. The 66-year-old heard the verdict at a court in the western province of Kanchanaburi. The Thai public has grown weary of repeated examples of wealthy Thais apparently flouting the law with impunity.
The jailing of Premchai is a rare case of a rich, influential Thai having to serve time for wrongdoing. Premchai Karnasuta is president of Italian-Thai Development PLC, one of the country’s biggest and best-known construction companies, which has been involved in mega-projects such as the building of Suvarnabhumi international airport and Bangkok’s mass transit Skytrain system. BANGKOK (AP) - Thailand’s Supreme Court on Wednesday affirmed a three-year, two-month prison sentence for a top construction tycoon in connection with a poaching incident in a wildlife sanctuary in which a black panther was shot and cooked over a campfire.
0 kommentar(er)
