The sole defendant in the Aipayae massacre case was acquitted by the court
Barely with any fanfare despite the controversial nature of the case, the Narathiwat provincial court recently acquitted the only defendant charged with the murder of ten Malay Muslims at the Al Furgon masjid in Ban Aipayae, Cho Airong district on June 8, 2009. 12 other people at the masjid were also wounded.
The acquittal of Mr Sutthirak aka Joom Kongsuwan, a former paramilitary ranger, was disclosed by Mr Sophon Thipbnamrung, special prosecutor in charge of security-related and terrorism cases in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces and four districts of Songkhla on August 16 in Songkhla province.
Mr Sophon was the prosecutor of Narathiwat when he indicted Mr Suthirak of premeditated murder and attempted murder. The charges of possessing a war weapon and carrying the war weapon in public were dropped.
Publicly known as the Aipayae murder case, the case was dogged with a lot of rumours and confusion because it was widely speculated that the prosecutor would not proceed with the case to the court after Mr Sophon instructed the police to conduct more enquiry on 11 points.
But finally, the case went to the Narathiwat provincial court with the sole defendant being indicted with murder and attempted murder charges.
The defendant, Mr Sutthirak, turned himself in on January 14, 2010 in the company of his lawyer at the Crime Suppression Division police in Bangkok to Pol Gen Adul Saengsingkaew, then a police advisor, and Pol Lt-Gen Peera Poompichet, commissioner of the operations centre of southern border police.
It was reported that Mr Sutthirak was sacked from the ranger force in Cho Airong district after he was suspected of involvement in drug trafficking and of being a hired gunman.
After the indictment, Mr Sutthirak was granted bail and was eventually seriously shot by an unknown gunman as he was riding a motorcycle with his wife sitting on the pillion in Muang district.
After the shooting, the defendant was booked by the police while still being treated at the hospital. Police suspected that he might be involved in the killing of a major drug trader in Narathiwat.
Since the shooting incident, Mr Sutthirak appeared to have faded out of public limelight. His name re-emerged after his acquittal by the provincial court.
Special prosecutor Mr Suphon noted that the public appeared to have an understanding that a criminal defendant would be convicted if the prosecutor had the DNA evidence against the defendant.
He explained that the court would carefully examine the DNA evidence by looking into the process of evidence collection whether it was done properly or not and if it was not properly done the court might reject that piece of evidence in accordance with Article 227 paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Criminal Code.