Legal aide to be questioned on suspect Aod
POLICE will summon a 'lawyer' affiliated with the Pheu Thai Party to question him about the whereabouts of Aod Payungwong, one of the suspects in the Erawan Shrine bombing, Royal Thai Police spokesman Pol Lt-General Prawut Thawornsiri said yesterday.
There have been reports that Bunchaliew Dussadi, a legal consultant to several Pheu Thai politicians, posted Bt40,000 bail to seek temporary release for Aod, or Yongyuth Pobkaew, for his involvement in a case in 2010.
“We have to ask Bunchaliew if he posted bail for Aod and if he knows the whereabouts of Aod,’’ he said.
He said it was not yet known if Aod had fled the country.
Meanwhile, police are hunting for an Arab-looking man whose image was captured by a security camera in a military court last week, the same day that two bomb suspects – Adem Karadag and Yusufu Mieraili – were sent to the court to seek permission for detention. That was the day the two re-enacted their alleged involvement in the crime.
Prawut said police had no idea yet if the man was involved in the Erawan Shrine attack. His pictures had been sent to all immigration checkpoints across the country and he would be held for questioning if found.
A source from Pheu Thai yesterday denied that Bunchaliew was a lawyer to many Pheu Thai politicians. He said Bunchaliew was just an official at a law firm, and was not himself a lawyer.
Nuttawut Saikuar, a key Pheu Thai politician and leader of the red shirts’ United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), also dismissed media reports that Bunchaliew had represented red shirts in court. He said many people provided legal assistance to the red shirts for humanitarian reasons.
In a related development, security officials in Kanchanaburi have stepped up checks on all routes along the border after reports said that Aod may have been hiding in the province with the support of a former politician.
Acting police chief in Kanchanaburi, Pol Colonel Chinnapat Tansrisakul, said he had ordered all 21 police stations in the province, local leaders and tourism police to search for Aod, but they had not found any clue to his whereabouts.
Police Col Weerayot Karunyathorn, the superintendent of Kanchanaburi Immigration division, said he had ordered immigration police to check all vehicles going in and out of the country. Pictures of Aod had been sent to all checkpoints.
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