THAILAND: COURT UPHOLDS RACKETEER'S DEATH SENTENCE

the Thai Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of former forestry official Visit Pluengrassamee, convicted of masterminding the January 1996 murder of a teenage vendor in Chiang Mai's Varorot Night Bazaar, whose stepfather had refused to pay protection money. The court said the 58-year-old former deputy chief of Lan Sang national park, in Tak, ran a protection racket, extorting money from vendors in markets and entertainment venues in Chiang Mai. Two gunmen working for him were convicted of killing Chaiyakorn Maihom, 16, a stepson of vendor Kasem Khamwongsa, 36, when he answered the door of a house in Muang district. The real target was Mr Kasem. The fees had been increased that year from five baht a day to 30 baht a day. The court said although the gunmen, Anand and the driver tried to protect Visit by not referring to him during the trial, their confessions during police questioning confirmed that he had ordered the killing. The court reconfirmed the death sentence, as handed down by the Criminal Court in July 2002. The sentence had already been upheld by the Appeals Court once before, in 2004.