Khattiya gets a reprieve

The court yesterday dismissed a police request for a warrant to search suspended Maj-General Khattiya Sawasdiphol's private home in Ratchaburi due to the lack of hard evidence.

The outspoken Army specialist, who has been accused of masterminding the grenade attack on the Army's headquarters in Bangkok last week, yesterday insisted he was innocent.

Khattiya said he would leave the southern city of Hat Yai by plane in the evening to join a red-shirt rally at Khao Soi Dao in Chantaburi and was ready to turn himself in to police.

Photararm district police in Ratchaburi yesterday sought the court's approval to search Khattiya's private house after Pol Lt-Colonel Santana Prayoonrat reported that there had been some suspicious activities there.

People had reported seeing Khattiya and his men entering the building late at night and leaving early in the morning, Santana said, adding that the place could have something to do with the grenade attack at the Army's headquarters on January 15.

However, the court turned down the police request for a search warrant on grounds that there was no substantial evidence to back the request.

Khattiya's elder sister Jiarania Mettakitbariboon said she looks after the place for Khattiya - a nearly empty two-storey wooden house that was recently remodelled and painted in red.

Jiarania said her brother sometimes comes back to the house with friends but there's nothing more to it.

Khattiya's quarters inside an Army barracks in Bangkok was last week searched by police and military personnel.

Asserting that he's facing "the dirtiest political game" of his life, Khattiya threatened to take revenge on General Anupong Paochinda once the Army chief reaches mandatory retirement later this year.

"I have never verbally abused [Anupong]. If I'm not reinstated within a month from now, I believe the red shirts will stamp on you and I won't help," he said.

Khattiya has been suspended from active duty by the Army chief.

Anupong told reporters that he had never personally ordered the prosecution of Khattiya and would let police handle the case under due process of law.

Security around Anupong's residence was stepped up yesterday.

Pheu Thai MP Pracha Prasobdee said the charge against Khattiya was an attempt to help set the stage for a military coup.

The opposition MP said he had heard that Anupong would be replaced by deputy Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha due to fear of a return to power by convicted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Another Pheu Thai Party member, Pallop Pinmanee, said the weapons discovered at Khattiya's residence in Bangkok were planted, as there were too many coincidences. The raid uncovered nine M16 rounds and other ammunition and holsters.

Pallop, a retired Army general, also criticised the Army chief for allowing police to handcuff a conscripted soldier assigned to Khattiya during the house search, saying it was unusual and unbecoming of the military to allow police to enter their compound.