The Ratchadapisek Criminal Court issued a warrant this afternoon for the arrest of Deputy National Police Chief Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn. It is believed that there is enough evidence connecting him to money laundering through an online gambling site and that he tried to avoid the police summonses.
The officers in charge of the money laundering case at Thung Song Hong issued three summonses for Surachate to acknowledge the charges against him on April 1st, but he ignored them all, which is thought to have been a tactic to delay the process. This led the officers to request a warrant from the court.
At around 4pm today, the court reviewed the request and decided to issue the arrest warrant.
After learning of the arrest warrant being issued, it was reported that Surachate cancelled all his appointments, turned off his cell phone, and booked a flight to a southern province this evening.
Earlier, arrest warrants were issued for three other police officers close to Surachate and a civilian for suspected involvement in money laundering connected to the BNK Master gambling platform.
To address the allegations against his client, Surachate’s lawyer, Natthakorn Tosakul, filed a defamation lawsuit with the Bangkok South Criminal Court on March 13th, against Deputy Commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, Pol Maj-Gen Charoonkiat Pankaew, accusing him of leaking information about the police investigation to the media, which caused damage to Surachate.
