Updated: Murky maneuvering I

In an earlier post, PPT complained about a lack of mainstream media reporting on the unexplained death in custody of Police Major Prakrom Warunprapha.

At the time that he allegedly hanged himself, Prakrom was in military custody, at a military base and accused of lese majeste by the military junta. Already conflicting information is leaking about the case.

The Bangkok Post has now provided a report that appears to have been written late on Sunday.

It refers to “[h]uman rights activists” as “calling on authorities to shut down the temporary prison set up at a Bangkok military compound, where one of the three latest lese majeste suspects died by hanging on Friday.” The “activists” in the report are from the Cross Cultural Foundation.

It is stated that the prison at the 11th Military Circle base was “initially set up to deal with the Erawan bombing suspects…”.

While that squares with an earlier Post report, we don’t think it tells the whole story. It has also been used for those “invited” in and detained by the military dictatorship as opponents and lese majeste suspects. We are not convinced that this is a “temporary” prison. More cynical observers might wonder if this site was Detention Site Green, now converted to domestic use.

The report states that Prakrom “was pronounced dead on Friday night.” According to the Post, by Sunday evening, his body had not been transferred to the Institute of Forensic Medicine for the required autopsy.

It also states that “[o]fficers said they found him hanging by a noose made from his shirt in his cell at the detention facility attached to the 11th Military Circle.” It is also reported that his “cell had no windows and corrections officers could not see the inmate from the outside.”

Given that it was earlier reported that “special wardens, made up of military officers and guards from the Corrections Department, has been appointed to take care of three suspects detained over in a high-profile lese majeste case,” and that the “wardens’ key responsibility is to ensure the three men’s well-being during detention…”, we can only be ope-mouthed aghast about what this means at the 11th Military Circle Detention Site.

Update: A reader tells us that one reporter is saying this: “The justice minister just announced that there will be no forensic examination on the body of lese majeste suspect Pol Maj Prakrom whom the Corrections Department said he committed suicide while under detention in temporary cell inside a military camp. The minister said family came to take his body and there won’t be any autopsy. How is that even possible or just?”