Thailand tries to mend jewel theft rift with Saudis

[KoratCat]

Thailand tries to mend jewel theft rift with Saudis

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has met the Saudi charge d'affaires to discuss improving diplomatic ties, after a 20-year rift.

Relations soured after a Thai labourer stole jewels - including a rare blue diamond - from a Saudi palace in 1989.

Several months later, three Saudi diplomats were shot dead in the Thai capital Bangkok.

A Saudi businessman, Mohammad al-Ruwaili, believed to have witnessed one of the shootings, then disappeared.

Thai prosecutors are expected to rule on Tuesday whether or not to indict five former police officers in connection with the disappearance of Mr al-Ruwaili.

Job losses

Mr Abhisit told reporters: "We are trying to improve relations. On the legal cases, we are watching closely.

"The government will not interfere in the judicial process... I assured [the charge d'affaires] this process will be straightforward."

The thief was caught in Thailand but when the Thai police returned what they thought were the real jewels - worth some $20m (£12.5m) - most turned out to be fake, causing further tension between the two countries.

Analysts say the dispute has cost billions of dollars in trade, and led to job losses for thousands of Thai migrant workers in Saudi Arabia.

Before the incident, as many as 300,000 Thais were employed in Saudi Arabia. The figure currently stands at just 15,000.

In 1994, the then Saudi charge d'affaires claimed the murdered Saudi diplomats had been "silenced".

The Saudis are pressing for the case to be solved before the statute of limitations runs out next month. They also want the blue diamond to be returned before there can be any improvement in diplomatic relations.

The scarcity and value of blue diamonds is in part down to the fact so few places in the world mine for them.

The stones get their colour when the chemical boron is present during formation.

BBC

[KoratCat]

Thai policemen charged over Saudi gem murder

BANGKOK — Thai authorities Tuesday charged a senior policeman and four other police officers with murder over the disappearance of a Saudi businessman that was linked to the theft of Saudi royal jewellery.

The charges came a day after the Saudi charge d'affaires in Bangkok met with Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to seek an end to the bloody 20-year saga sparked by the theft of the gems from a Saudi prince's palace.

The deaths of three Saudi diplomats, the wife and daughter of a jewellery dealer, and Saudi businessman Mohammad al-Ruwaily have all been linked to the case, which has soured relations between Thailand and Saudi Arabia.

Lieutenant General Somkid Boonthanom, police commander of Thailand's northern region, and four fellow officers had been indicted with the murder of al-Ruwaily in 1990, the office of the Thai attorney general said.

"Somkid and four accomplices were indicted today at the criminal court for premeditated murder, illegal detention and concealment of wrongdoing," said Thanapich Mulapruk, a senior official at the attorney general's office.

All five suspects denied the charges and were released on bail of 500,000 baht (14,000 dollars) each, he said. The court set March 29 as the opening date of the case.

One of Thailand's biggest mysteries began when a Thai janitor was jailed for stealing gems worth 20 million dollars in 1989 from the Saudi palace where he worked, before smuggling them back to Thailand.

Police recovered most of the jewellery but much of what was returned to the Saudi owner proved to be fake and many pieces are still missing.

As the Saudis pressed Thai authorities to find the rest of the hoard, the three Saudi diplomats were shot dead in two separate incidents in a single day in 1989.

The indictment accuses Somkid, who at the time ran Bangkok's southern district, and the other four policemen of abducting al-Ruwaily in 1990 because they thought he was connected with the deaths of the envoys.

The five suspects detained him in a hotel and tortured him before shooting him dead and disposing of his body, the indictment said.

In October Thailand's Supreme Court upheld a death sentence for another former senior policeman who in 1994 abducted and murdered a gem merchant's wife and son as he investigated the theft of Saudi royal jewellery.

The merchant, Santi Srithanakhan, had bought some of the jewellery stolen in the heist.

Somkid's brother is a key supporter of Abhisit and a member of the "Yellow Shirt" movement, which blockaded Bangkok's airports in 2008 to topple the previous government loyal to fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Prime Minister Abhisit insisted that his meeting on Monday with the top Saudi diplomat in Bangkok, Nabil Ashri, was not connected with the indictment.

"As I told the Saudi diplomat yesterday, the government will not interfere and will not allow anyone else to interfere in the case. I cannot say whether the outcome of the case will satisfy everyone," Abhisit said.

AFP