Acting on a police request, the court will decide whether Prakitpao should be released from Srithanya Hospital.

The Criminal Court has summoned the hospital's director Kiatipoom Wongrajit and Prakitpao to an inquiry today.

"We will look into whether there are sufficient reasons to order Prakitpao's release from the hospital," the court's chief judge Jirawan Suyanawanichkul said yesterday.

Jirawan said Lt-Colonel Thitidej Intornpan of Bang Sue Police Station and Pemmika Veerachatraksit, who has been very close to Prakitpao for nine years, are expected to ask the court to release the teacher.

They will bring an expert to argue that he should be released.

Prakitpao's wife, mother and elder brother will also attend the inquiry. They do not want the court to order Prakitpao's release.

Kiatipoom will appear before the court but it is not known whether Prakitpao will be allowed to attend.

"He may not come," Jirawan said.

Prakitpao, 37, has a Bt100-million-a-year tutorial business. On February 19 he was sent to Srithanya Hospital just hours before he was to sign divorce papers at a district office in Nakhon Pathom.

Pemmika said he had been forced to receive treatment.

She lodged a complaint with police who subsequently called on the court to intervene.

Psychiatrists who have examined Prakitpao have agreed that he has mental problems.

Kiatipoom yesterday expressed full confidence in a diagnosis by Dr Paitoon Samudsin that found Prakitpao was suffering from mental illness.

A second opinion by a three-member panel from Royal College of Royal College of Psychiatrists reportedly confirmed Paitoon's diagnosis.

The college's chair, Professor Nongpha-nga Limsuwan, who also heads Ramathibodi Hospital's Psychiatry Department, declined to disclose details.

"What I can confirm is that

no psychiatrist will label a normal person as mentally ill because it's a sin and will cause additional burden to psychiatrists who already have to take care of many patients," she said.

Some mentally ill patients are unaware that they are sick, Nongpha-nga added.

Pemmika, however, remains sceptical about the family's explanation for sending Prakitpao to Srithanya Hospital, noting that this prevented him from signing divorce papers.

"I want to know what happened to him when he went back home to get the necessary papers for the divorce," Pemmika said.

On February 19, Prakitpao gave documents for the divorce to Thawatchai Kaewkongka, an assistant at Nakhon Pathom's District Office, then went to fetch more documents from his home, saying he would soon return.

Thawatchai said Prakitpao never returned but his mother showed up to say that her son no longer wanted a divorce.

Pemmika said she also wanted to know why Prakitpao had such high levels of ephedrine in his body.

Srithanya Hospital said he had 200 times the normal level of the substance in his body. High doses of ephedrine, a common ingredient in medicines, can affect the mind.

Assistant Professor Kitti Totemchokchaikarn of Ramathibodi Hospital said that amount of ephedrine was unlikely to have accumulated in the body over a long period because it is swiftly flushed from the system.

"If it is found in such a high amount, it is likely that it came from a single intake," he said.

Meanwhile, Metropolitan Police Division II commander Maj-General Amnuay Nimmano said Thitidej faced a probe over whether he broke regulations by giving an interview to the media without prior consent from his supervisors.

"The probe should be completed within five or seven days. If the probe concludes that he broke the regulations, he will face disciplinary action," Amnuay said.

Amnuay added he had instructed Thitidej not to speak to the media out of concern for Prakitpao's family and Srithanya Hospital.