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Blue Diamond : Saudi Arabia v Thailand

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  • Blue Diamond : Saudi Arabia v Thailand

    Thai Blue Diamond Affair: Kingdom demands justice
    Friday 4 July 2014

    Mohammed Al-Ruwaili

  • #2
    Blue Diamond : Saudi Arabia v Thailand

    Saudi Arabia Recalls Top Diplomat From Bangkok Over Court Ruling
    22 August 2014

    Khaosod English this morning. Mr. Alenazi will be the embassy's top official until Mr. Al-Sheaiby returns.

    Judge Somsak Phonsuk, who had been presiding over the case for three years, was suddenly removed from his position in January 2014 two weeks before he was scheduled to finish writing a judgment. The verdict was then rewritten by the new judge who replaced Mr. Somsak.

    Mr. Somsak later told Thai Rath newspaper that he believed he was unfairly removed from the position, but court officials insist that he was dismissed because of an unrelated disciplinary inquiry. Mr. Somsak also said that he was ready to convict the five police officers that his replacement judge ultimately found innocent.

    Mr. Al-Ruwaili's family has filed an appeal of the court ruling and also drafted a petition to send to Thailand's King, Mr. Alenazi said.

    A spokesperson of the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sek Wannamethee, confirmed that Mr. Al-Sheaiby has left the country, but insisted that Thai-Saudi relations have not been downgraded.

    In addition, while Mr. Alenazi said he clearly explained to MFA officials that the recall was a response to the court verdict, Mr. Sek told Khaosod that he did not believe the court ruling was related.

    "It's just speculation," Mr. Sek said.

    The suspected murder of Mr. Al-Ruwaili was only one incident in the notorious "Blue Diamond Affair," a series of scandals that rocked the Thai-Saudi relations in early 1990s, starting with the massive theft of jewels from a Saudi Arabian royal palace allegedly committed by a Thai gardener.

    A spate of murders and abductions followed the theft. In 1989, three months after Mr. Al-Ruwaili went missing, three Saudi diplomats were gunned down in Bangkok. In 1994, the wife and son of a Thai gems dealer were abducted and later murdered in what appears to be a blotched attempt by a rogue police officers to determine the location of the stolen Saudi jewels.


    • #3

      Thailand appoints new team to investigate Saudi murders

      Thailand on Wednesday launched a new investigation into the unsolved murders of three Saudi Arabian diplomats and one businessman in Bangkok 17 years ago.

      "We have set up a new team of investigators under Army Colonel Piyawat Gingkaet," said Sunai Manomaiubom, director general of the Department of Special Investigation.

      The department, which is under the Justice Ministry, has been investigating the Saudi murder cases for the past two years after the case was taken away from the police. Several police officers remain key suspects in the murders.

      There will be no former policemen on the new team of investigators, Sunai said.

      "This case is difficult and problematic to get evidence because it happened a long time ago, but we still think we can solve it," the director general said.

      The deaths of the three diplomats and the businessman, gunned down in Bangkok in 1990, were believed to be linked to the theft of millions of dollars worth of jewels from the palace of Saudi Prince Faisal bin Abdul Raish in 1989 by Thai labourer Kriangkrai Daechamong.

      The theft, perpetrated by Kriangkrai while he was a gardener in the prince's palace in Riyadh, sparked a diplomatic row when Thai police, assigned to hunt down the missing jewelry in Thailand, ended up sending imitation stones back to Saudi Arabia.

      Among the missing items was a priceless blue diamond.

      One police officer was jailed for the theft, the assassinations of the diplomats were never solved and many items, including the diamond, were never returned.

      Saudi Arabia downgraded its relations with Thailand as a result of the incidents, barring its citizens from visiting the South-East Asian kingdom and greatly restricting the number of Thais allowed to work in the oil-rich nation.

      dpa sk pj ls


      • #4


        Saudi Arabia's charge d'affaires to Thailand was recalled on the orders of the country's king, who is upset with the lack of progress into the 1990 murder case of businessman Mohammed al-Ruwaili, the embassy has confirmed.


        • #5
          Yip truth and justice for sure.


          • #6
            One is not allowed to comment on the real situation here, under pain of things worse than death. Yet every single Thai, knows the situation.
            But why on earth should Saudi normalise relations with Thailand? Just look at the body count, and the stooges.


            • #7
              Court affirms term for Saudi gem thief

              The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the seven-year sentence imposed on a former police sergeant major involved in the 1989 royal Saudi jewels scandal.

              Sawek Kanthama at the Criminal Court where the Supreme Court ruling was read on Wednesday
              (photo by Pattarapong Chatpattarasill)

              Upholding an Appeal Court ruling, the court reaffirmed the sentence of Sawek Kanthama, one of seven police officers prosecuted for absconding with jewellery stolen from the palace of late Saudi Prince Faisal bin Fahd. The gems were stolen by Thai janitor Kriangkrai Techamong, but officers replaced some of the gems with fakes before turning them in as evidence.

              Sawek was acquitted by the Criminal Court in May 2006 and sought to have the case finalised after public prosecutors failed to file an immediate appeal.

              While the Criminal Court issued the finalisation order in June 2007, an appeal had been made late. Sawek only learned of it in August 2011. In the second trial, the Appeal Court sentenced him to seven years in prison.

              In Wednesday's ruling, the Supreme Court said the appeal, even though made tardily, kept the case remain active and the Appeal Court had authority to overrule the Criminal Court's earlier decision to finalise the case.

              Sawek said he would not petition the Supreme Court. He has been jailed for two years and six months, is categorised as a good prisoner and will wait for freedom, he said.

              The former police sergeant major in the Crime Suppression Division was a subordinate of Chalor Kerdthes, a former police lieutenant general who headed the team to find the stolen Saudi jewellery.

              The team located the family of jewellery trader Santi Srithanakhan, who reportedly fenced the jewels. But detectives abducted his wife and son, who later died in police custody.

              Chalor, now 76, was sentenced to death, but later received royal pardons that commuted his sentence 50 years. He was released on parole in October.



              • #8
                The catch is here is the Saudi system any clearer and non biased in favour of the rich and powerful?


                • #9
                  So you are a police upper up. You are involved in a large theft and murder of 2 innocents, you are condemned to death, pardoned and sentenced to 50 years and then paroled after what 4 years?

                  Wow fair handed justice for sure.


                  • #10
                    Saudi gems bribe prison term upheld

                    The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the 10-year prison term given to Pol Col Prasert Chanthrapipat for taking a 660,000 baht bribe from a jeweller who had purchased some of the jewels stolen from the palace of a Saudi prince 25 years ago.

                    Twenty years ago Thai janitor Kriangkrai Techamong sneaked into the home of Saudi Prince Faisal bin Fahd in the dead of night.
                    His actions changed the course of relations between the two countries.

                    (File photo)

                    Pol Col Prasert, a former superintendent of the mounted police, was among eight defendants charged with receiving money from jeweller Santi Srithanakhan in 1993.

                    Other defendants including Chalor Kerdthes, a former police lieutenant general, accepted the finality of their sentences after losing in the Appeals Court.

                    Only Pol Col Prasert petitioned the Supreme Court.

                    The lower court acquitted him, but the prosecution took the case to the Appeals Court, which convicted him and handed down the prison sentence.

                    The Supreme Court ruled it believed four witnesses for the prosecution, and dismissed Pol Col Prasert's claim that there was no witness to confirm he accepted the bribe.

                    Thai janitor Kriangkrai Techamong stole jewellery worth about 500 million baht from the palace of the late Saudi Prince Faisal bin Fahd in 1989. Part of the jewellery had reportedly been sold to Santi.

                    Santi's wife and son were murdered while a group of Thai police, including Chalor, was pressuring him so they could get hold of the jewellery. The bribery reportedly happened during this process.

                    Some of the jewellery returned to Saudi Arabia was declared to be fake.

                    Chalor, now 73, who was at the centre of the infamous Saudi "blue diamond" case, was freed in October 2013 after serving 19 years in Bang Kwang Prison for his involvement in abduction and double murders in 1994 relating to the gem theft, on grounds of age and chronic ill health.

                    The former police commissioner headed the investigation to find the jewellery stolen from the palace.

                    He was sentenced to death for his role in the 1994 abduction and murder of Darawadee Srithanakhan and her son to force her husband Santi to give information about the stolen jewellery.

                    Chalor was also given a jail term for tampering with evidence and a jail term for Santi's abduction.

                    He was stripped of his rank of Pol Lt-General and was ordered to return his royal decoration in 2010, after which he changed his name to Thachapol.

                    The whereabouts of the fabled "blue diamond" remains unknown, despite wild speculation.



                    • #11
                      Thai gardener behind $27m Saudi gem heist becomes monk
                      15 min ago

                      BANGKOK(AFP) - A Thai gardener behind a US$20 million (S$27 million) gem heist from a Saudi palace that has long soured relations between the two countries became a monk on Thursday (March 17) in hope of redeeming his karma.

                      Kriangkrai Techamong stole the precious gems from the palace of a Saudi prince where he worked in 1989, triggering a feud between Thailand and Saudi Arabia dubbed the "Blue Diamond Affair" that has yet to be resolved.

                      Thai police later returned some of the jewels but Saudi officials claimed most were counterfeits while the whereabouts of the most precious gem - a rare 50-carat blue diamond - remains unknown.

                      On Thursday, Kriangkrai told local media his life has been haunted by the theft that unleashed an "avalanche" of suffering on his family.

                      "I am confident that all my misfortunes are the result of a curse from the (blue) Saudi diamond I stole, so I've decided to enter the monkhood for the rest of my life to redeem my bad karma," he told Thai Rath newspaper.

                      Local TV channels showed the middle-aged man receive alms from templegoers as he marched in an ordination ceremony with a shaved head and white robes in northern Lampang province.

                      Channel 7 reported that he had been blessed with a new monk name that translates to "He Who Has Diamond Knowledge".

                      Kriangkrai was jailed for five years soon after the theft, but managed to sell most of the gems before his arrest.

                      Saudi Arabia has long accused Thai police of bungling its investigation, with widespread allegations at the time that the stolen items were snapped up by senior officers.

                      Riyadh sent a businessman to conduct his own investigation, but he disappeared in Bangkok days after three Saudi diplomats were shot dead, execution style, in the city.

                      In 2014, a case was dropped against five men, including a senior Thai policeman, for alleged involvement in the businessman's murder over lack of evidence. The decision came after a last-minute change in the judge.

                      Saudi Arabia has not sent an ambassador to Thailand for decades and restricts travel between the two countries because of the unresolved theft and murders.



                      • #12
                        Appeals Court frees Somkid
                        May 3, 2016

                        The Appeals Court today acquitted former police inspector-general Lt-Gen Somkid Boonthanom and four other police officers of the abduction and eventual murder of Saudi businessman Mohamed al-Ruwaili back in 1990, with reasons of weak testimonies and no new direct evidence to ascertain all the accused had committee the crimes.

                        The ruling today was attended by representatives of the Saudi embassy.



                        • #13
                          Saudi Arabia denies lifting ban on travel to Thailand
                          Habib Toumi
                          February 27, 2017

                          Exceptions apply in cases of transit, medical treatment and family links



                          • #14
                            Curse of the Blue Diamond

                            ...perfidy, greed, murder and generally larcenous behavior from local authorities: the Saudis were thoroughly shafted.