Attempted murder suspects point
to Sombut Sonthiphin as the man they say hired them for the job. Sombut
denies the charges.
Theerarak Suthathiwong
A leader of the Koh Chang Preservation Group has been arrested for
allegedly masterminding a plot to kill a Pong Sub-district village chief.
Sombut Sonthiphin, 43, a one-time candidate for the Koh Chang Council,
turned himself in to Region 2 police July 4. He denied charges of conspiracy
to commit murder.
Nikorn Kradkrai, 44, headsman for Moo 3, his wife Paengsri Saensila, 45, and
son Mukhpol Kradkrai, 11, were hospitalized with treatable gunshot wounds
following the April 25 incident at the Kradkrai family antique shop and
residence. Nikorn was grazed in the shoulder while his wife and son
sustained shots to the legs.
Nikorn stated that he was eating while sitting on the porch of his house
when a red Isuzu pickup truck approached and a man, seemingly drunk, got out
and ordered his driver to get him two beers. After paying, the drunk pulled
an MK-33 rifle and sprayed the house with 21 bullets.
At the time, Nikorn told police he knew of only one
dispute that could have prompted the shooting. He has been in conflict with
a property-development firm in Koh Chang owned by a prominent figure there.
Nikorn, coming to the aid of a Moo 3 resident, accused the company of
swindling a woman of 10 million baht during the sale of a 24-rai parcel of
land in Pong.
Police allege that Sombut was that prominent figure, the owner of numerous
businesses and well-connected to the political establishment. Investigators
allege he hired Sriracha resident Anucha Srijanthum, 31, Sanong Wongplee,
39, of Trat, and Ekanat Netjak, 53, to kill the Pong headman. Investigators
earlier arrested all three, claiming Ekanat identified the target for
Anucha, the driver, and Sanong, the shooter. A fourth man, Prasert Saelim,
50, is believed to have supplied the automatic rifle and remains at large.
Sanong fingered Sombut to police after the Koh Chang luminary allegedly
cheated them out of all but 3,000 baht of their 100,000 baht fee, and
refused to protect them from police. The men were forced to hide out in a
rubber plantation in Chumphon until being caught.
At police headquarters, Sombut belligerently denied the charges against him,
but lashed out at Sanong, shouting that “you are not a man” for identifying
him to police.
Police made the usual big show of the arrests for the media, parading the
alleged gunman and driver in front of the camera at the Khunrak Resort where
the murder plan was supposedly hatched; the site where the Isuzu was dumped,
the spot where the gun was ditched and, finally, to the scene of the
shooting.
