New probes for bribe, VIP trip sagas

published : 30 Jan 2023 at 05:36

newspaper section: News

A picture captured from a viral video clip posted by a tourist from Hong Kong show two police officers load her luggage into a car trunk at Suvarnabhumi airport early this month.

The national police chief on Sunday ordered a committee set up to probe four police officers who offered an unauthorised VVIP service to a Chinese tourist.

The officers have been charged with criminal counts and face disciplinary action after the tourist posted several clips on a Chinese social media platform in which she claimed to have been escorted past the immigration queue and offered a police motorcycle escort to her hotel in Pattaya.

According to Royal Thai Police (RTP) spokesman Pol Maj Gen Archayon Kraithong, police chief Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas has ordered a further disciplinary committee assess the severity of penalties necessary following the incident and passed the case to the Suvarnabhumi Airport police station for criminal prosecution.

Pol Gen Damrongsak also issued a notice on Jan 17 giving the RTP's legal research committee two weeks to amend current guidelines to ensure there can be no incidents of a similar nature in the future.

The RTP chief is adamant that stricter rules be put in place to rein in wayward officers who abuse their authority, said Pol Maj Gen Archayon.

Meanwhile, officers from the Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) will travel to Taiwan to collect more evidence in the case regarding the Taiwanese actress who claimed that Thai police extorted 27,000 baht from her.

The Taiwanese actress, identified as An Yu Qing, and also known by her English name Charlene An, posted details of the alleged extortion on the Thai Facebook page "Ni Hao Taiwan, Chan Ma Laew" (Hello Taiwan, I'm here), sparking heat online chatter over the weekend.

The Metropolitan Police Bureau's (MPB) chief of investigations, Pol Maj Gen Theeradet Thamsuthee, said the RTP's Foreign Affairs Division will coordinate with the actress and four of her friends in Taiwan as the evidence police obtained so far does not confirm any wrongdoing.

According to Pol Maj Gen Theeradet, the MPB has identified the three acquaintances she was with at the time and is now contacting them individually to arrange police interviews.