The Criminal Court has sentenced a former engineer to 26 years and six months in jail for placing a bomb at a TOT telephone booth near Ratchawithi Soi 24 in 2007, bringing his cumulative jail term to 160 years and 54 months.
The case was the seventh and last case against Watana Pumret, who was active in Bangkok in 2007 and 2017. He did not appeal in the previous six cases.
Watana, 63, a former electrical engineer at Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, was found guilty on Friday of premeditated murder and of assembling, having and using illegal explosives.
The trial found Watana had put a timer-triggered improvised bomb in a plastic bag on the footpath next to a telephone booth operated by TOT Plc near Ratchawithi Soi 24 in Dusit district on May 5, 2007.
The bomb went off and injured a person and causing 1,000-baht damage to the phone booth.
The court found there were links between the explosives found at his house and at the scene. His bomb-making “signature” was also consistent with that in the six previous cases against him.
Since the defendant was educated and have expertise in assembling electronic circuits and confessed to the crime, the court believed police did not frame him.
It handed down a jail term of three years for making illegal bombs, halved to one year and six months because he confessed.
For the charge of premeditated murder, the court sentenced him to life in prison, halved to 25 years.
Earlier, he was convicted for having explosive at his Bang Khen house and sentenced to four years in jail and a fine of 975 baht.
For the 2017 Phramongkutklao Hospital bombing, Watana got 26 years and 12 months plus a fine of 500 baht.
For the 2017 bombing at the old Government Lottery Office, he was sentenced to 26 years and 12 months plus a 500-baht fine. He was also ordered to pay 130,000 baht in damages to an injured woman.
For the 2017 bombing in front of the National Theatre, he was sentenced to 26 years and 12 months and a fine of 500 baht. He was also ordered to pay 10,000 baht in damages.
For the bombings at Major Ratchayothin cineplex and at a phone booth near the army headquarters in 2007, he got 26 years and six months each.