The Court of Appeal has confirmed the Criminal Court’s death sentence against former deputy commerce minister Banyin Tangpakorn for the murder of billionaire construction firm owner Chuwong Sae Tang in a staged car crash in 2015.
The court said on Thursday that all the evidence it reviewed supported the decision to uphold the ruling of the Phra Khanong Criminal Court in 2021 against the former MP for Nakhon Sawan.
The ruling was read out at the Phra Khanong court as Banyin is serving his term at Bang Kwang Central Prison.
Wanpen Thanathammasiri, Chuwong’s sister, said after the ruling that she was satisfied with the court’s decision and was ready to fight the case in the Supreme Court if need be.
It is not yet known whether Banyin will pursue his case in the highest court.
Ms Wanpen said it had been a long and difficult seven-year fight for justice for her younger brother because there were no witnesses in the case. As well, she said, the accused was knowledgeable when it came to the law because he was a former policeman.
She thanked police at the Crime Suppression Division, Central Police Forensic Science Division and other experts for their hard work on the case.
The plaintiffs — public prosecutors, Ms Wanpen and Sirirat Sae Tang, Chuwong’s widow — first filed their complaint against the former politician in 2015 after Chuwong was killed on June 26 in that year.
Banyin was convicted of conspiring to kill Chuwong, and concealing the crime for his own vested interest and to evade prosecution. According to the criminal and appeal courts, Chuwong did not die in the car crash, which was not an accident, but was murdered.
Banyin told police that Chuwong was a passenger in a car that he was driving after they had dined together in Bangkok on June 26, 2015. He claimed his car crashed into a tree, killing Chuwong, who was sitting in front. He insisted the crash was an accident.
However, forensic evidence suggested Chuwong had been murdered, and pointed to Banyin having masterminded the crime.
He was thought to have killed the businessman for a large amount of shares in the latter’s firm. The shares had been illegally transferred to Banyin and placed in the possession of two women with whom he was romantically involved.
Banyin is also serving a life sentence for the abduction and murder of Wirachai Sakuntaprasoet, an elder brother of Phanida Sakuntaprasoet, the judge who was trying the Chuwong case, in an effort to pressure her to drop the case.
Banyin was one of four men who grabbed Wirachai outside the Bangkok South Criminal Court on Feb 4, 2020. The 70-year-old was later killed and his body burned and thrown into the Chao Phraya River in Nakhon Sawan.
