A confess-for-immunity deal is being proposed to terror suspect Surachai Thewarat after he refused to cooperate as first promised, Department of Special Investigation (DSI) director general Tharit Phengdit said yesterday.
Surachai's wife will also be excluded from prosecution for allegedly taking Bt60,000 in a sting in which militarygrade weapons were sold by him to Navy undercover agents, and his mother and a baby will be put under DSI protection, Tharit said.
Surachai promised last week to give details about the armed violence by redshirt protesters, but changed his mind on Monday after a visit by lawyers representing the Pheu Thai Party, which indirectly supported the protests.
Tharit has not yet set a date to talk with Surachai at Bangkok Remand Prison where he has been detained. He did not give details about the deals that will be offered his wife and mother over the weapons trade.
Pheu Thai MP Jatuporn Promphan said the DSI was using a "dirty trick" by making up a story to persuade Surachai to speak out. He also said the DSI was manipulating the suspect by using the arms deal to pressure him to give information instead of allowing him to make a willing confession.
He said the DSI employed the same confessforimmunity technique with Methee Amornwutthikul, a Pheu Thai Party member arrested for his part in the protests, who provided details that led to the killing of late Army specialist MajGeneral Khattiya Sawasdiphol.
Jatuporn said he was asking Khattiyah's daughter to lodge a defamation lawsuit against Surachai for saying earlier that he had carried out two attacks on the general's orders.