The Criminal Court has sentenced a couple, who threw a 28-year-old man to his death from a condominium in Bangkok in 2010, to 15 years in prison in a case that has dragged on for more than a decade.
Pramote Munmuang and Jitwimol Suksuwan were convicted yesterday of murdering their friend, Sarut Thaweerujjana, a medical student at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, by throwing him from the fourth floor of a condo on Lat Phrao Road following an argument.
The court sentenced both to 15 years' imprisonment and also ordered them to pay 5 million baht in compensation plus interest at a rate of 7.5% to the victim's mother.
The court later reduced the prison term to 10 years as they had provided useful testimony.
That ended a case that began on April 18, 2010, when Sarut was found dead outside his condo in Soi Lat Phrao 132 in Bang Kapi district.
The police initially thought he committed suicide by jumping from his room.
However, Sarut's mother refused to believe her son took his own life and pointed the finger at Pramote and Jitwimol, who had been drinking with him in his room when he was supposed to have jumped.
She lodged a complaint and called on police to reopen the investigation into her son's death. Investigators did so and later found evidence suggesting Sarut had died as a result of foul play and was actually murdered by his friends.
Both Pramote and Jitwimol denied the accusations but Lat Phrao police filed a lawsuit against them with the Criminal Court.
Sarut's mother welcomed the guilty verdict, adding she was certain from the beginning that her son did not commit suicide, but was murdered.
She said he had a high blood alcohol level, meaning he would have been too drunk to climb up on the apartment balcony and jump to his death.
She said she had yet to decide whether to appeal and seek a stiffer sentence.