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Published on August 8, 2007

Thawatchai Rattanason-thaykul was punished after prison guards found an SIM card in his repository cell, but he will not be charged for his alleged role in the murder of a man in Chacheongsao until the charge is officially made against him, said prison commander Preeda Nilsiri.

Phichitchai Diloksri, the council adviser, was arrested at his Bangkok home on Monday for his alleged role in the killing of Niphon Phoomasjaroenku at a ranch in Chacheongsao on July 21.

He later claimed that Thawatchai ordered the killing. Thawatchai, 43, has been detained at the institution since going on trial for the alleged possession of 50,000 amphetamine tablets.

Preeda said that, during his solitary detention, the inmate would be barred from receiving any visitors except his lawyers.

Preeda admitted that mobile phones had been smuggled into his and other prisons, but guards had been searching cells and confiscating the handsets. At his prison alone, 50 cellphones had been seized since he took command in November last year.

More than 100 drug convicts in the prison's Zone 9 and another 120 inmates in Zone 10 were being monitored closely, Preeda said. He added that prison guards and anti-narcotics police were working to deter drug-dealing operations coordinated from within the prison.