The mysterious world of “justice”
Readers may recall the case that came to light in late 2011, as floods bore down on Bangkok and one senior bureaucrat worried that all of his ill-gotten gains might get water-logged, so he had all of his cash moved to an upper-level bedroom. Someone apparently let this be known to a man who quickly put a gang together and went int to grab all the money. There was so much cash, the thieves apparently claimed they couldn’t carry it all away! One of the suspects claimed that the gang found between 700 million baht to 1 billion baht in cash stuffed into bags.
The story of the robbery at the Lat Phrao 64 home of Supoj Saplom was a sensation for a while and then faded. That he could have accumulated immense wealth was clear from his position as permanent secretary at the Ministry of Transport and chairman of the State Railways of Thailand. Earlier he was Director of the lucrative Highways Department. However, with not a whiff of evidence but plenty of venom, a couple of crazy yellow shirtsclaimed the money really belonged to Thaksin Shinawatra.
The politicized National Anti-Corruption Commission decided to launch a probe into Supoj’s “unusual wealth,” with Supoj saying only about 5 million in cash was stolen and whining that he was really quite poor. Now The Nation reports that the courts have made convictions in the case. Not Supoj of course, but the burglars. The police claimed that the nine men stole 18.12 million baht in cash from Supoj’s residential money pot, far more than Supoj wanted to say was lost. The eight got between 5 and 18 years in jail, reduced somewhat for confessions.
So the criminals are locked up. And, oh yes, the last line of the report says that the National Anti-Corruption Commission may still be conducting a graft probe against Supoj.
The message is again very clear: there are two justice systems in Thailand. One for the poor and another for the rich, not matter how corrupt and criminal the rich are.