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Published on November 17, 2007

The verdict was read out to Laota, 70, his sons Wichan, 31, and Sukkasem, 27, at the Ratchadaphisek Criminal Court.

Laota, a wealthy, twice-decorated village chief in Chiang Mai's Fang district, told reporters after the verdict that he would go back to live a simple life as a farmer.

Asked about his alleged ties with the late Shan opium warlord Khun Sa, Laota smiled and said he only knew of him through newspapers and television broadcasts.

The prosecutor's lawsuit said that the three men were arrested at their home in Chiang Mai's Mae Ai district in June 2003 after being implicated by another drug suspect, Somsak Pimpimai, of involvement in the trafficking of 336 grams of heroin.

During the arrest, police seized two pickup trucks, two 9mm pistols along with ammunition, three communication radios, one mobile phone and a pair of binoculars.

The Criminal Court in October 2004, and the Appeals Court in June 2005 acquitted Wichan of both charges.

Laota and Sukkasem were found guilty of possessing illegal firearms and sentenced to jail terms of one year and four months each, which they have already completed while in remand.

The Supreme Court yesterday said the prosecution had failed to provide a convincing argument in its appeal against the previous courts' verdicts by providing circumstantial evidence. Police officers as witnesses had given many conflicting reports, such as the source of the Bt200,000 they claimed was used in a sting operation to arrest Somsak, who they later called as a witness.

Because there was no record of such an amount being

withdrawn from the officers' supervising agency, this led to the suspicion of whether a sting operation actually took place. The implication was deemed hearsay, the raid on the defendant's home did not turn up any drugs and the defendants had always denied any involvement with drug trafficking.

The Supreme Court, seeing insufficient evidence for prosecution, upheld the previous courts' rulings to acquit Laota and his two sons of the heroin-trafficking charge.

After the verdict was read out, Laota, his sons and relatives left the courtroom with smiles on their faces. Laota told reporters that he had never felt stressed because he knew in his heart he was not involved in drug trafficking as accused.

He said he had been growing chilli and coffee crops for a living and had not known the police were after him.

Wichan criticised the police, saying they should only arrest and prosecute suspected wrongdoers, not the whole family as in this case.

Defence lawyer Rerm Chaoangthong said the Supreme Court's ruling meant the case was closed.

However, he said Laota and his sons might not be entitled to compensation for the time they spent in remand because this was a narcotics case, and they would not counter sue.

This case could serve a lesson to the police about arresting innocent people simply to raise their own profile, he added.

Laota and his two sons were earlier accused in August 1999 of being one of the main distributors of illicit narcotics for the drug warlord Wei Hsueh-kang, one of the top commanders in the 20,000-strong United Wa State Army (UWSA).

Wei was arrested by Thai authorities in 1987 for masterminding a shipment of 680 kilos of heroin, but fled the country to the Burmese sector of the Golden Triangle where he ran a sizeable UWSA battalion. Prior to his sentencing, Wei, who had a US$2 million (Bt63 million) price put on his head by the US government, was granted bail by a Thai court.

Kesinee Teangkhieo

The Nation