THAILAND: DEATH PENALTY UPHELD FOR GOLD-HEIST SCHOOLMASTER

A Thai Appeal Court on 20 July 2021 upheld the death sentence for former schoolmaster Prasittichai Khaokaew, who shot dead three people, one a child, and wounded four others while robbing a gold shop in Lop Buri province early last year.
The ruling was read out in the Criminal Court and was video conferenced.
The Appeal Court upheld the death sentence and refused to reduce the punishment, as requested, because of the inhumane nature of the crime.
The shootings occured when Prasittichai, 39, robbed the Aurora gold shop at Robinson department store on Phahon Yothin Highway in Muang district of Lop Buri on the night of 9 January 2020.
The Criminal Court on 27 August last year sentenced Prasittichai to death, and other penalties, for cold-blooded murder and illegal use of weapons.
During the robbery, he shot dead a security guard of the shopping centre, a two-year-old boy walking with his mother and a woman employed by the gold shop. He also shot and wounded four other people.
At that time of the robbery he was the director of a primary school in nearby Sing Buri province.