Justice minister to inspect bones possibly belong to missing lawyer

The minister will be accompanied by senior police who were in charge of the investigation on the missing of Somchai. They will board a helicopter to Panurangsri army camp where the bones were kept.

The bones and some nailes were found recently in Ratchaburi. Police believed Somchai was taken from Bangkok to the province in 2004.

If the bones are human, they will be sent for DNA testing to see if there is a match with Somchai.

Somchai, a prominent lawyer, went missing on March 12, 2004 after he disclosed police mistreatment of his clients who were accused of being involved in a raid on a military camp in Narathiwat in which four soldiers were killed and more than 300 weapons stolen.

Somchai's case is among high-profile but unsolved cases that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva instructed police to solve to shore up confidence in the rule of law."I want law enforcement authorities to quickly resolve cold [long term unsolved]cases with consequences on human rights and violence in the deep South so as to stop the problems from festering," Abhisit said.

He said his government would fully back the investigative proceedings in order to uphold the law. The country's reputation will be mired so long as the cases remain unresolved, he said.