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Published on January 11, 2008

Chonsawas and his two aides - Sakul Pramoolchai and Pratya Chaiyakul - pleaded not guilty yesterday to three charges in an indictment against them over the much-publicised brawl with a Makkasan traffic policeman in May. They have been released on bail of Bt600,000 each.

The Criminal Court accepted the indictment and set a preliminary hearing for March 10.

The judges also accepted the public prosecutor's request to add Chonsawas's non-suspended four-year sentence last September, in which he was convicted of massive election fraud in a municipality election in Samut Prakan in 1999.

The three men have been indicted with obstructing policemen's duties, insulting police officers on duty, and coercion of police officers preventing them from performing their duties.

Reading out the police investigation report, the public prosecutor said Chonsawas had told a police captain present at the scene near a petrol station on New Phetchaburi Road which he owned, that Pol Sergeant Prarob Saengnil "... must be crazy for ordering an individual of his stature to take a breath test for alcohol".

Chonsawas also asked Prabob: "Don't you know me?" and pulled him into the petrol station, while his two aides manhandled the officer. Chonsawas said: "You come get me on my own premises."

Sakul also ripped the sergeant's rank badge off Prabob's right sleeve and threw it on the ground - an act the public prosecutor said was aimed at demeaning the officer personally as well as the police profession.

The Nation