Thai police mull suit against anti-trafficking chief

By CS Thana

BANGKOK

Thai police said Friday that they were considering filing a defamation suit against a former police officer in charge of a crackdown on human smuggling who fled the country and is currently seeking asylum.

The announcement comes after former Police General Paween Pongsirin, whose efforts led to the arrest of several senior figures, retired and fled to Australia, where he told media that there were credible threats on his life.

Police Chief Jaktip Chaijinda told reporters Friday that Thai police were considering suing Pongsirin for his comments.

"We are talking with our legal team to see if we can file defamation charges," said Chaijinda. "We have no idea why he thinks his life is in danger."

Pongsirin, who led the anti-trafficking crackdown that followed the discovery of corpses buried at a camp in the country's south, had resigned from the force last month after he was forcefully transferred to the region -- the same area where many trafficking ringleaders are living.

After leaving the force, he had said that his investigation unit had been disbanded and the probe wound up despite the fact that there are still “senior people in uniform” who have not been brought to account for their roles in human smuggling.

"I worked in the trafficking area to help human beings who were in trouble… but now it is me who is in trouble," Pongsirin told ABC’s 7.30 program Thursday.

"There are good soldiers but the police and the military are involved in running the human trafficking,” he added. “Unfortunately the bad police and the bad military are the ones that have power."

Last May, Pongsirin began a crackdown on human trafficking networks after 26 corpses -- including those of Muslim Rohingya -- were found at an abandoned camp in Padang Besar district, close to the Malaysian border.

Since then, more than 150 arrest warrants have been issued and over 90 suspects detained, among them a provincial head and other local politicians, military officers including an army general, civilians and police officers.

The former police general said that because of the far reaching implications of his crackdown, many senior government figures wanted him dead.