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Thai army officer faces 13 human trafficking-related charges

Xinhua, June 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

A high-ranking army officer of Thailand who is allegedly involved in human trafficking was charged with 13 offences on Thursday, and he denied them all.

Lt Gen Manus Kongpan, a senior army adviser, surrendered to police on Wednesday and was then interrogated for eight hours, according to the National News Bureau of Thailand.

Manus was charged with trafficking in persons, illegal detention, assisting aliens with illegal entry into the country, holding individuals for ransom, hiding corpses and committing transnational crime, among others.

He denied any involvement in the trafficking of Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants to Malaysia by way of Thailand, but was denied bail.

The Thai authorities have launched a crackdown on human trafficking since early May when mass graves believed to contain bodies of deceased Rohingya migrants from Myanmar were found in Thai-Malaysian border areas.

Arrest warrants have been issued for 84 suspects, including Manus, with 52 already in police custody and the rest still at large. Endi