Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Monday 9 March 2020

Thai judge who alleged

interference dies in 2nd

suicide bid

By BUSABA SIVASOMBOON
Associated Press
BANGKOK (AP) — Police in Thailand say a judge who
shot himself last year to publicize alleged interference
in his work has died after what was apparently a sec-
ond suicide attempt.
Police Maj. Sathitchai Nitayawan in the northern prov-
ince of Chiang Mai said that Khanakorn Pianchana
died in a hospital after apparently shooting himself in
the chest Saturday morning.
Khanakorn had posted a letter on his Facebook page
several hours before his death complaining that he
was being persecuted after his suicide attempt in Oc-
tober last year.
He was moved from his post as a lower court judge in Rescuers work at the site of a collapsed five-story hotel building in Quanzhou city in southeast
the southern province of Yala and reassigned to Chi- China's Fujian province Saturday, March 7, 2020.
ang Mai. His letter said he feared he would lose his Associated Press
position as a judge and face criminal charges related
That incident drew great attention because of his al- 10 dead, 23 missing as hotel
to his first suicide attempt.

legations that he had been pressured to change his
a long-running Muslim separatist insurgency in Thai- in China virus fight collapses
verdicts in some politically charged cases related to
land's southernmost provinces.
He had shot himself in the chest with a pistol in his Yala BEIJING (AP) — At least 10 Two retail spaces on the days.
courtroom after acquitting five defendants of murder people were killed in the first floor of the seven-story Hotel workers and employ-
and firearms charges that could have condemned collapse of Chinese ho- building were undergoing ees of an auto shop in the
three to death. tel that was being used to remodeling, and a pillar re- building were also inside at
A 25-page statement attributed to him that circulat- isolate people who had portedly deformed a few the time of the collapse.
ed online after that incident accused his superiors of arrived from other parts of minutes before the col- More than 1,000 firefight-
trying to force him to change the verdicts to guilty. Su- China hit hard by the coro- lapse, Xinhua said, quoting ers and seven rescue dogs
pervising judges are allowed to see lower court rulings navirus outbreak, authori- a housing and develop- were dispatched to the
before they are issued — one of Khanakorn's major ties said Sunday. ment official. site, according to the Minis-
complaints. The sudden collapse of the Built in 2013, the building try of Emergency Manage-
Khanakorn's statement made several references to building in the southeastern was later converted to a ment. News photos showed
the south's security situation. He said that confessions city of Quanzhou on Satur- 66-room hotel that opened rescue workers with lights
obtained from alleged insurgents in harsh conditions day evening trapped 71 in June 2018, Quanzhou bringing out people, some
of detention were not convincing evidence — a point people, China's Ministry of authorities said. The coast- bloodied by the collapse.
frequently raised by rights activists, who have ac- Emergency Management al city is in Fujian province, Rubble could be seen on
cused the army of using torture. said. across the Taiwan Strait cars in front of the building.
Court officials after the October incident blamed per- The ministry said that 38 from the island of Taiwan. China, where the new virus
sonal stress for Khanakorn's action and denied undue had been rescued and 23 The city said that 58 people first emerged in Decem-
influence on verdicts. were still missing. Most of from epidemic-hit areas ber, has confirmed more
Thailand's court system has long been criticized, gen- the rescued were taken were staying at the Xinjia than 80,000 cases, about
erally over charges of corruption but more recently to hospitals for treatment, Hotel for medical observa- 75 percent of the global to-
for an allegedly political bias. Previous attempts to re- some with serious injuries tion. tal. More than 3,000 people
form the judiciary have been bitterly resisted, and the The cause of the collapse All had tested negative have died in China. Most
courts still spurn most criticism. was under investigation, for the virus. Most Chinese of the cases have been in
In cases since 2006, supporters of ousted Prime Min- and the owner of the build- cities are isolating people Wuhan, an inland city in
ister Thaksin Shinawatra and pro-democracy activists ing was put under police coming from Hubei prov- Hubei province about 670
opposed to military interference in politics often be- control, the official Xinhua ince, where the disease is kilometers (475 miles) north-
lieved they were unfairly targeted for prosecution by News Agency said. most widespread, for 14 west of Quanzhou.q
the courts, which are seen as allies of Thailand's tradi-
tional royalist-military ruling establishment. Scores detained at women's
"I believe that I will certainly be punished and fired
letter, which declared this his "body and mind cannot rally in Kyrgyzstan
from my job," Khanakorn declared in his latest online
bear the feeling of utmost grief."
"To my friends, relatives and the Thai people, I assure MOSCOW (AP) — Police in Bishkek. were primarily women.
you that everything I have done, I did with a clear the capital of Kyrgyzstan Demonstrators gathered The Akipress news agen-
conscience and I do not regret it," he wrote. "I am have detained about 60 for a rally to express sup- cy cited lawyer Bakytbek
proud to be a part of a movement in bringing justice people after an unauthor- port for women's and chil- Aftandil as saying those
to the people." ized rally to mark Interna- dren's rights, but unidenti- detained were released
His note also included a plea for people to donate to tional Women's Day was fied males barged into the several hours later and
a bank account to help provide for the education of broken up by a group of gathering. Bishkek police that about 10 of them had
said people from both sides been charged with resist-
men.
his daughter.q
The disorder took place were detained, but news ing police, which carries a
Sunday at a main square in reports said the detainees fine of 3000 soms ($70).q