Thai tycoon wanted over deadly Bangkok tower collapse in quake surrenders to police
Premchai Karnasuta among 17 people charged with the felony of professional negligence causing death
A construction magnate and more than a dozen other people surrendered to police on Friday on criminal negligence charges for the collapse of a Bangkok high-rise during a March 28 earthquake.
Premchai Karnasuta, the president of Italian-Thai Development Co, the main Thai contractor for the building project, as well as designers and engineers were among 17 charged with the felony of professional negligence causing death, Bangkok deputy police chief Noppasin Poonsawat said.
The accused have publicly denied wrongdoing.
Ninety-two people were confirmed dead in the rubble of the building that had been under construction and a small number of other people remain unaccounted for. The building, which was to become a new State Audit Office, was the only one in Thailand to collapse in the earthquake that was centred in neighbouring Myanmar.
The search for victims’ remains was officially ended on Tuesday, though efforts to identify body parts through their DNA will continue.
Noppasin said at a news conference that evidence and testimony from experts suggested the building plan did not meet standards and codes. The Bangkok Post newspaper said police had also determined the project showed “structural flaws in the core lift shaft and substandard concrete and steel”.
Thai media have reported allegations of wrongdoing in the project almost every day since the building’s collapse, many of them involving irregular documentation for the project. Their reports have highlighted the role of Italian-Thai’s Chinese joint venture partner, the China Railway No 10 company, which is involved in projects around the world.
A Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the 17 on Thursday. Noppasin said 15 turned themselves in at a police station in the morning and the remaining two were expected to do so later on Friday.
Premchai’s case is his second major tangle with the law. In 2019, he was convicted of wildlife poaching and served about three years in prison.
He was found guilty of killing protected animals and illegal possession of weapons after park rangers found him and other members of a hunting party in the Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in western Thailand in February 2018.
They were found with guns and the carcasses nearby of a rare black panther, a kalij pheasant and a barking deer. The black panther, which is a member of the leopard species, had been butchered and its meat cooked up for soup.
