KANCHANABURI: Construction tycoon Premchai Karnasuta arrived at Thong Pha Phum District Court on Wednesday morning to hear the Supreme Court's ruling on charges of illegal hunting in a wildlife sanctuary.
The 66-year-old former president of Italian-Thai Development Plc arrived at the court about 9am, wearing a bandage over his left eye and using a walking cane.
Two other defendants, his former driver Yong Dodkruea, 68, and hunter Thanee Thummat, 59, had arrived at the court in another vehicle 30 minutes earlier. An army of journalists waited for them and were barred from entering the court. Two prison trucks were parked behind the building.
The three defendants, along with a woman cook, were arrested at their camp in Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in tambon Chalae of Thong Pha Phum district on Feb 4, 2018, for alleged hunting of wildlife including a rare black panther, a kalij pheasant and a barking deer. They also faced many other related charges.
In December 2019, the Appeal Court sentenced Premchai to three years and two months in prison, Yong to three years and five months and Thanee to three years and nine months.
They appealed to the Supreme Court.
Nathee Riemsaen, the 46-year-old cook, was given a suspended prison term of one year and eight months. She did not appeal the sentence.
