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[Sexpat]

"Justice Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga yesterday showed the press video footage to prove that the Burn's lead singer, Saravuth Ariya, was a scapegoat. The 28-year-old was earlier charged of setting off fireworks on stage that set the santika Pub ablaze killing 66 partygoers.

Pirapan told the press yesterday that his ministry's investigation team has found faults in the police reports and would therefore tell the Department of Special Investigation take it up as a special case on February 11. The minister said the findings would also be submitted to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva today.

Things don't match. Reporters were yesterday shown security-camera footage within the club and images of forensics chief Porntip Rojanasunan conducting a test on the fireworks believed to have been used.

The security-camera footage, which the ministry's panel reportedly obtained three days after the fire, contradicted witness testimonies that Saravuth had lit fireworks on stage. The footage shows balls of fire falling from the ceiling 2.57 minutes after the pyrotechnics were lit, and Saravuth is seen leaving the stage. There were no images of the singer lighting the fireworks.

Pirapan said experiments showed that fireworks take a while to spark a blaze. However, security footage shows that the fire spread in a couple of minutes, probably because the ceiling was made of flammable materials. He has urged witnesses to carefully review their accounts, adding that many of the surviving partygoers could no longer be contacted at the numbers they had provided.

In a separate occasion, Abhisit yesterday said he agreed with the idea of having the DSI look into the club's fire because the case was too complicated, adding that the Justice Ministry and the police work hand in hand and exchange any information and evidence they may have.

Pirapan revealed that traces of heroin and cocaine had been found in staff and musicians' dressing rooms, and it was suspected that drugs freely changed hands inside the venue. The panel has told the Office of the Narcotics Control Board to further investigate. The Anti-Money Laundering Office was also instructed to look into the Bt20-million transfer into the club's bank account supposedly from an alcohol company. The firm denied making any such transaction.

The team is also questioning why the police stopped raiding the premises after a certain individual bought shares in the White and Brothers on September 17, 2006. This was despite the 47 arrests police had made previously for unauthorised opening of the venue and selling booze at prohibited times.

Pirapan also revealed that Suriya Ritrabeu, managing director of White and Brothers, had a history of drug abuse and further investigation showed that santika Pub had paid no excise taxes throughout its five years of operation.

In addition, documents were found containing forged signatures of an architect and a construction-supervisory engineer, which might have been part of an illegal ruse to issue forged construction permits. The engineer's name was used in 33 applications for construction permits, he said. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has been urged to look into this aspect of the case because it goes against the Building Control Act.

Meanwhile, the police continues to stand by its claim that Saravuth is to be blamed for the blaze. "We have clear evidence or else the court would have not approved the arrest warrant," Pol Colonel Kachornsak Pansakorn said."

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/02/03...al_30094822.php

[wpcoe]

Interesting Bangkok Post editorial:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion...ame-our-country

How police shame our country
By: Sanitsuda Ekachai
Published: 5/02/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

It is a big slap in the face. And if the police insist they are not mad at the Justice Ministry for going public with the videotape evidence in the Santika Club inferno which contradicts the police's findings, they are simply lying.

Last week, the police bigwigs held a big press conference to announce that they had arrested and charged Saravuth Ariya, the lead singer of the rock band Burn, for causing the New Year fire which killed 66 people and injured hundreds of party-goers.

Two days later, Justice Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga showed video footage which suggested the police had arrested a scapegoat. The police charge is based on the accounts of two eyewitnesses who said they saw the singer ignite fireworks with his lighter, which caused the inferno. But the video footage of Burn's stage performance did not show that. Faced with the new evidence, the police countered that the short footage might not have captured the entire event that led to the fire.

What is going on here? Is this part of an organisational rivalry between the two state agencies? In self-defence, police said they were unable to include the video footage in their case because the maverick forensic doctor, Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan, had refused to hand it over. She promptly said she had been so ordered by the justice minister.

It is no secret that the police view the director of the Forensic Science Institute as their arch enemy, given her fearless and constant criticism of police abuse.

It is no secret, either, that the police and Justice Ministry do not see eye to eye. During the last national administrative reform, the police were supposed to come under the supervision of the Justice Ministry.

However, wanting to maintain their old power which keeps them competitive with the army - and maintain the endless flow of tea money - the police succeeded in resisting the move, choosing instead to report directly to the prime minister.

Many policemen may think they are being punished by the Democrat-led government for serving as the personal army of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Others may think it is an effort by the Justice Ministry to steal the scene.

The fact remains that the public stands behind the Justice Ministry in the Santika case, given the police's dismal record of distorted investigations in favour of certain parties. The video footage simply confirmed the public's doubt that the arrest of singer Saravuth may just be an effort by the police to close the case to protect the big fish.

They are asking why the police did not find traces of heroin and cocaine in the club's office area, as had the team of the Justice Ministry; why had they not known long before that the club violated construction laws; and why did the constant police raids suddenly stop after a high-ranking cop became one of the club's shareholders?

The Justice Ministry's team also found that the club had not paid taxes, that the engineer's signature had been forged for the club's construction with apparent help from some BMA officials, that the person registered as the club's manager was actually a worker in the club's parking lot, and that the club might have been involved in a money-laundering racket.

What is making the police shut their eyes?

The Santika fire disaster epitomises the problem of deep corruption that is killing this country. Undeniably, in the eyes of the public the main culprits are the police because they can feign blindness to law-breaking until the festering problem explodes. And because they can tamper with the evidence at will before the cases reach the courts.

The Santika case aside, the police's dinosaurean focus on eyewitness accounts often opens itself to human error while the main use of confessions as the main evidence opens itself to routine abuse and torture. Why do the police resist forensic science? Simple answer: it makes the effort to distort the cases and extort money from people involved much more difficult.

The rule of law is mandatory for democracy. That will remain our pipe dream so long as the first step towards legal justice is largely in corrupt hands.

Sanitsuda Ekachai is Assistant Editor (Outlook), Bangkok Post.

Email: sanitsudae@bangkokpost.co.th

[Dick]

Unfortunately, there are few editors or writers like Sanitsuda Ekachai, on either the Bangkok Post or the Nation, who are prepared to openly confront Thai society about its deeply-rooted corruption. The lady has literal brass cajones, which is something you can't say about most of the men who run or write for either of the English-language papers.

[Geezer]

Literal: adjective
1. in accordance with, involving, or being the primary or strict meaning of the word or words; not figurative or metaphorical: the literal meaning of a word.

[UncleSam]

[attachmentid=416] And here they are, as swiped from her desk.









Hehehe.....

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