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Published on February 20, 2008

Earlier, public prosecutors dropped the case despite a complaint from the boy's uncle that three policemen from the Bang Chan Police Station used excessive force in their operation to nab the boy's father on the night of February 23, 2003.

That night, nine-year-old Chakraphan Srisa-ard succumbed to two gunshot wounds and his mother mysteriously disappeared. The boy's father was sent to jail and is serving a 25-year term for trafficking methamphetamines.

The boy's uncle Somchai Kerdrungruang said yesterday: "I hope the court will deliver justice and set a precedent that extra-judicial killings do not translate into good police work."

He said police clearly opened fire on a defenceless Chakraphan and his parents despite the fact none of them tried to resist arrest.

"There were six gunshot holes in their vehicle."

Somchai said he did not believe the police claim that unknown gunmen fired the shots and that the arresting officers simply ducked bullets fired from behind them during the sting operation, in which Chakraphan's father delivered 6,000 methamphetamine tablets to undercover police.

Somchai said police lawyers had repeatedly tried to persuade him to drop his complaint against Sergeant Major Pipat Sangin, Lance Corporal Anusorn Tansuwan and Corporal Panumas Chana-cham in exchange for Bt400,000 to Bt500,000 in cash.  "But I have turned such offers down. I want justice. I want to know whether police officers who shot the young boy will face legal punishment," he said.

When public prosecutors dropped the case against the three policemen, Somchai went to the National Human Rights Commission in late 2005. Together, they appealed to the court against the prosecutors' decision not to sue the three police.

The Criminal Court will rule on their appeal on Friday. If the court rules in Somchai's favour, a fresh investigation into his nephew's death will start and the case will go again to public prosecutors for a review. If public prosecutors agree, the case will finally go to court.

Currently, Chakraphan's case is being handled by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) after the Surayud Chulanont government questioned the 3,000 extra-judicial killings during Thaksin Shinawatra-led administration's notorious "War on Drugs".

Suparat Iamtan

The Nation