Family members of a missing Saudi businessman hope that a court ruling in a case against five senior police officers on Monday will bring some closure in the 24-year saga.
The disappearance of Saudi businessman Mohammad al-Ruwaili, coupled with the theft a year earlier of valuable jewels from a Saudi prince, has strained ties between Saudi Arabia and Thailand ever since.
Matrouk al-Ruwili, the abducted businessman's brother-in-law, and Ateeq al-Ruwaili, the businessman's elder brother, are now in Bangkok to hear the ruling of the Court of First Instance on Monday.
Five officers were charged with kidnapping and murdering the Saudi businessman. They are Lt-Gen Somkid Boonthanom, a former police inspector-general and younger brother of a 2006 coup participant; Pol Col Sorarak Jusanit, superintendent of Sommoei police in Mae Hong Son; Pol Col Praphas Piyamongkol, superintendent of Nam Khun police in Ubon Ratchathani; and two decommissioned officers - Pol Lt-Col Suradej Udomdee and Pol Sgt-Maj Prasong Thongrung.
Another officer, Pol Lt-Col Suvichai Kaewpluek, was a key witness in the case.
Lt-Gen Somkid denied the accusation made by Pol Lt-Col Suvichai that he had ordered the other officers to kidnap Ruwaili and had detained him at a Phra Khanong hotel before he was killed and his body burned in Si Racha district in Chon Buri.
"There seems to have been interference, maybe from authorities, maybe some influential figures, on the path of justice," says Matrouk al-Ruwili (Photo by Apichart Jinakul)
Matrouk al-Ruwili told the Bangkok Post that he and his sister had been assured by Banharn Silpa-archa, the interior minister at the time, that Ruwaili was okay and possibly somewhere in the jungle.
"From the way he talked, [Banharn] seemed to know what he was, but from the news revealed weeks afterward, and from the way Ruwaili disappeared from his office while on his way home, we have come to the conclusion that he was abducted," said Ruwili, 59.
Mr Ruwili arrived in Bangkok two days after his brother-in-law's disappearance and stayed for more than a year in a quest to discover some truth about the case. He sent his sister back home a year after her husband vanished. The couple were newly married and had no children, added Ateeq.
The 30-year-old businessman was last seen on Feb 12, 1990. He had been talking to his wife 15 minutes before his phone went off in the afternoon, family members said.
"The family has come to the conclusion that he was stopped by the police and taken by the police, which division we don't know, for certain interrogations, perhaps relating to the assassination of the Saudi diplomats," said Mr Ruwili.
Ateeq said his brother had been approached in the wrong way. "If (his interrogation) had been conducted through legal channels, he might not have disappeared," he said.
The al-Ruwaili family said the missing sibling had no bad relations or quarrels with anyone else in business (he was running a recruitment business) and only the authorities would need him for certain things.
Embassy sources have dismissed the notion that the missing businessman was a secret agent investigating the notorious jewellery theft from a Saudi palace a year earlier.
"He happened to be too close to the Saudi diplomats as a friend and perhaps that was why investigators in the diplomats' case found him in a questionable place," a source said.
Shortly after jewellery heists by a Thai worker in 1989, a Saudi diplomat was killed at the embassy building in Bangkok. A year later three more diplomats were killed on Feb 1, 1990.
Some of the stolen jewels were recovered and returned but many were found to be fakes. A priceless "Blue Diamond" has never been recovered.
The businessman's brother and brother-in-law believe the whole saga had something to do with some conflicts over certain interests in Thailand.
"No one has offered us any solid explanation about the whole issue. We think they have mixed the cases and tried to put blame (for the theft and the diplomats' murders) on somebody. Ruwaili apparently was a victim of mishandling and hasty handling by the Thai authorities," said Mr Ruwili.
"In fact, the Thai public, the Saudi public as well as us are victims of this mystery."
The men also believe that the many twists and turn of Thai politics have caused detours in the course of justice.
"There seems to have been interference, maybe from authorities, maybe some influential figures, on the path of justice," said Mr Ruwili.
The caretaker government has been trying to resolve the issue but its efforts have been interrupted and impeded, he added.
Caretaker Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul has said a ruling in the case should be the key to the restoration of Thai-Saudi relations.
"Our family just wants justice be served; but we hope for the best and prepare for the worse. If it turns out to be unjustified, we will certainly appeal the ruling," said the family members.