Public prosecutors in Bangkok plan to arraign eight suspects including a former national police chief on Thursday in the infamous Red Bull heir hit-and-run case.
Wacharin Phanurat, deputy spokesman for the Office of the Attorney-General, said on Monday that public prosecutors called eight suspects to the office on Thursday so that their arraignment could follow at the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases.
The OAG agreed to proceed with the arraignment in accordance with a request by the National Anti-Corruption Commission. The eight included former national police chief Pol Gen Somyot Poompanmoung and former deputy attorney-general Nate Naksuk. The anti-graft body suspected the case had been mishandled.
Their charges included the alleged change of the speed of Vorayuth Yoovidhya’s Ferrari car in the accident in 2012 and a decision to dismiss his arraignment on a reckless driving charge. Mr Vorayuth is the son of Red Bull energy drink tycoon Chalerm Yoovidhya.
Mr Wacharin expected the case would be finalised in one year.
Mr Vorayuth has been on the run since his Ferrari struck and killed a Thong Lor police officer on Sept 3, 2012. He was 27 years old then.
Several charges against him have since been dropped, including a speeding charge after its one-year statute of limitations expired in 2013, followed by another charge of failing to help a crash victim, which expired in 2017.
The one remaining charge is reckless driving causing death, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in jail and has a 15-year statute of limitations. It will expire in 2027.
Pol Gen Somyot Poompanmoung (file photo)
Nate Naksuk
