Appeal Court upholds death penalty for Nawat

Appeal Court upholds death penalty for Nawat

The Appeal Court has upheld the lower court's death sentence against Nawat Tohcharoensuk, the former Pheu Thai Party MP for Khon Kaen, it was announced on Monday.

Nawat was found guilty by the Khon Kaen Criminal Court in late September last year of masterminding the murder of a local administrative official seven years ago, and sentenced to death. The court also ordered him to pay 300,000 baht for the funeral costs of the murdered man.

The judges found that Nawat ordered the murder of Suchart Khotethum, then assistant chief of the Khon Kaen provincial administration organisation, because the victim was having an affair with his wife.

The 53-year-old former MP hired five people -- including two former policemen -- to kill Suchart who was shot dead in front of his home in Khon Kaen's Muang district on May 3, 2013, as he left for work.

The case involving the five suspects eventually reached the Supreme Court which upheld the death sentence against Pol Lt Col Somjit Kaewprom, the life sentences against Veerasak Chamnanpol who served a police senior sergeant major, Prapan Sirapilai and Boonchuay, and acquitted Piyapong Meekambang.

Nawat: 'Mastermind' of official's murder

Nawat was charged separately as the murder mastermind and the case was decided by the Appeal Court on June 23. He previously owned a construction business in Khon Kaen's Nong Rua district and was an executive of the provincial administrative organisation.

He has also been accused of ordering an assault on fellow Pheu Thai MP, Yutthapong Charassathien, in September last year.

Nawat was stripped of his MP status last November.

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