Army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin yesterday linked prominent Muslim lawyer Somchai Neelaphai-jit's disappearance to people close to ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The dramatic revelation sparked new hope that the missing lawyer's family might finally see justice.

"I have received information from investigators that some individuals close to former prime minister Thaksin were behind the disappearance of Somchai," Sonthi told reporters yesterday.

The junta chief, who led a coup to topple Thaksin six weeks ago, declined to give further details or identify any of the individuals allegedly involved.

Somchai's wife Angkhana Neelaphaijit said the information might be the same as what she had known for a long time. It indicated that a person from the Prime Minister's Office made several phone calls to one of five police allegedly involved in the abduction of her husband on March 12, 2004, she said.

Police Lt-Colonel Chatchai Liumsanguan, Police Lt-Col Sinchai Nimpunyakhamphong, Sergeant Chaiyaweng Phaduang, Corporal Randorn Sithikhet and Pol Major Ngern Thongsuk were charged with illegal detention in connection with Somchai's disappearance.

But only Pol Major Ngern, of the Crime Suppression Bureau, was jailed - for three years - after a trial. Three of seven eyewitnesses who testified in court said they had seen Ngern forcibly push Somchai into a car.

Investigators have reportedly never found any evidence or information to link the five police with any other individuals believed to have close connections to Thaksin, Angkhana said.

"I don't know why officials have sat on the information for so long time and never brought it to the court to pin down any suspects," Angkhana said in a phone interview.

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) was instructed last year to carry on with the case to bring more wrongdoers to justice.

But the department had made little progress, until Sonthi instructed embattled DSI chief Pol Gen Sombat Amornwiwat to speed up the probe and report on its latest findings.

DSI investigators admitted they had found no solid evidence to make a clear case or take any other suspects into custody, said Angkhana, who met the team last week.

But Sonthi's hint might help steer inquiries in the right direction, she said, adding that the coup leader's move gave her hope.

DSI spokesman Col Piyawat Kingket said the department would contact Sonthi to obtain more information about the disappearance, because existing evidence provided no links to people close to Thaksin or leads to the possible arrest of any suspects, he said.

An informed source said an individual at Government House had several phone conversations with one of the five police officers, who was heading from Bangkok to the western province of Ratchaburi, from 8.30pm on the night Somchai was abducted.

The former prime minister Thaksin told Angkana in a private meeting last year that her husband was dead and that some government officials were involved. He later instructed the DSI to continue looking into the case.

Aran Pancharoen, a colleague of Somchai from the Muslim Lawyers Association, called for the authorities to overhaul the investigation team in order to make real progress.

Investigators had to be independent and free from possible interference by influential figures, otherwise they could be blocked from gathering the truth, Aran said.

Somchai was the former chairman of the Muslim Lawyers Association. He defended many Muslim suspects accused of violence in the restive South.

He went missing after publicly revealing that police had tortured his clients. The disclosure caused a huge loss of face for the police and was believed to be the key motive for his abduction.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation

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The Somchai case timeline:

March 12, 2004: Lawyer Somchai Neelahphaijit, 55, chairman of Thailand's Muslim Lawyers Association, went missing after he was last seen waiting for his friend at Chalina Hotel in central Bangkok.

March 16, 2004: Somchai's car was found at a parking lot of the North and Northeast Bus Terminal on Kampaengphet Road.

March 18, 2004: Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra ordered formation of a police committee to especially investigate Somchai's disappearance.

MarchApril 2004: Seven witnesses questioned by police said they saw a group of men pushing Somchai into a station wagon after intercepting his car in Ramkamhaeng area on the night of Match 12.

April 8, 2004: Arrest warrants were issued against four policemen suspected of involvement in the abduction of Somchai.

April 29, 2004: Another arrest warrant was issued against the fifth policeman.

June 16, 2004: The five police suspects were charged in court for coercion on the ground that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute them for a more serious crime.

January 12, 2006: Pol Maj Ngoen Thongsuk, one of the five policemen standing trial for their suspected involvement in Somchai's disappearance, was sentenced to three years in prison for coercion. The four others were acquitted for lack of evidence.

January 12, 2006: Somchai's wife Angkhana Neelaphaijit said after meeting then prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra that the premier told her that Somchai was dead.