THAILAND. FORMER DEMOCRAT MP AND AIDE SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER

former Democrat MP Sitthiporn Kham-art and his close aide Ekkasith Yusuk were sentenced to death for masterminding the murder of the mother of former Democrat MP Khomkhai Polabutr. The Criminal Court found both defendants guilty of plotting a bomb attack on Pattama Fuengprayoon, who was killed in the car bomb nine years ago in Chanthaburi's Muang district, Thailand. Sitthiporn was a former parliament representative for Bangkok and Ekkasith former provincial councillor for Loei.
The court also found two other defendants, Prasong Saengchan and Pol Sgt-Maj Nikhom Chitkul, guilty of Pattama's murder. They were originally sentenced to death, but the court commuted their sentences to life imprisonment due to their cooperation during the police investigation.
The court found that the defendants had conspired to kill the victim's husband, Mr Sanit, but failed.
On September 5, 1997, they planted a bomb under Mr Sanit's car, but it failed to detonate. The bomb, however, exploded the following day when Pattama drove the car from her house in Tha Mai district to Rambhai Barni Rajabhat University.