BANGKOK, Jan 13 — Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung on Friday said he has ordered metropolitan police to reopen the investigation of the assassination of late army specialist Maj-Gen Khattiya Sawasdipol, who was shot dead at Saladaeng intersection during the Red Shirt protests last year.
The deputy premier who also oversees national security reasoned that there are more findings on the case and that he knew all the persons who were involved in the murder.
The reinvestigation of the trajectory of the bullet that killed the general is needed, Mr Chalerm said, as new evidence show that the bullet was not fired from Chulalongkorn Hospital, but from the front of the Dusit Thani Hotel.
Gen Khattiya, also known as Seh Daeng, was shot in the head as he was being interviewed by international media outside the Red Shirt barricades at Sala Daeng intersection in May, 2010, when the demonstration of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) against the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration reached its peak.
Seh Daeng was the hardline Red Shirt leader who supervised the UDD security operation and Red Shirt guards. He stood firm in opposing the Democrat-led government.
The Silom incident took place after the government announced that it would seal off the Red Shirt’s main rally site at Ratchaprasong intersection in an attempt to pressure the anti-government protesters to end their rally.
