The Criminal Court has sentenced to death former deputy commerce minister Banyin Tangpakorn for the murder of billionaire construction-firm owner Chuwong Sae Tang in a staged car crash in 2015.
Banyin was convicted of conspiring to kill Chuwong, and concealing the crime for his own vested interest and to evade prosecution. According to the court, Chuwong did not die in the car crash, which was not an accident, but was murdered.
It said evidence and witness accounts presented by the defendants did not carry enough weight to refute those provided by the plaintiffs led by Chuwong's elder sister, Wanpen Thanathammasiri. The court said Banyin also showed no remorse, which gave the court no reason to grant him leniency.
Its ruling was read to Banyin remotely via video conference linked to Bang Kwang Central Prison where he is serving a life sentence for the abduction and murder of the brother of a judge who presided over a case connected to Chuwong's killing.
Banyin told police Chuwong was a passenger in a car he was driving after they dined together in Bangkok on June 26, 2015. He claimed his car crashed into a tree, killing Chuwong, who was sitting in front. He insisted the crash was an accident.
However, forensic evidence suggested Chuwong had been murdered, pointing to Banyin having masterminded the crime.
Banyin: Guilty of Chuwong murder
He was thought to have killed the businessman for a large amount of shares in the dead man's firm which had been illegally transferred to the former deputy minister and placed in the possession of two women with whom Banyin was romantically involved.
He and five other suspects were jailed in December last year for the abduction and murder of the brother of a senior judge, in what was an attempt to force her to drop the indictment against him in the share transfer case.
Wirachai Sakuntaprasoet, an elder brother of Bangkok South Criminal Court judge Phanida Sakuntaprasoet, was kidnapped by four men outside the court on Feb 4 last year. The 70-year-old was later killed and his body burned and thrown into the Chao Phraya River in Nakhon Sawan.
One of the kidnappers was Banyin, who drove Wirachai from Bangkok to a wood in Khao Bai Mai in Nakhon Sawan, according to police.