The Criminal Court has sentenced a physician and a woman accomplice to 10 years in jail each for the murder of their close friend, a doctor, who was thrown from a four-storey apartment building in Bangkok’s Lat Phrao area 11 years ago.
The court read out its judgement on Thursday in the case against Dr Pramote Manmuang and Ms Jitwimol Suksuwan, who were charged with collusion in first-degree murder.
Dr Pramote was the first defendant in he case and Ms Jitwimol the second defendant.
The court found that the two defendants had thrown Dr Sarut Thaweerujjana, then 28, a pathologist at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, from the fourth floor of the Drive In Apartments building in Lat Phrao of Bang Kapi district shortly on the night of April 18, 2010.
He landed on the concrete surface 9.7 metres below and was killed.
The court said witness and forensic evidence showed the two defendants were guilty of murder. The court ruled out suicide. It said the motive was a love triangle, but gave no details.
The court initially sentenced both defendants to 15 years in prison, commuting the terms by one-third to 10 years each because they gave “useful testimony”.
The court also ordered the defendants to jointly pay 5 million baht in compensation, plus 7.5% annual interest, to their victim’s mother.ad
Sarut’s mother and other members of his family were at the court to hear the judgement, Thai media reported.
The murdered man’s mother said later outside the court she was satisfied with the ruling and believed justice had finally prevailed. The evidence showed her son did not commit suicide, as was claimed, but was murdered.
Although the murder happened a long time ago, there had been changes of police investigation teams.
The prosecutors indicted the defendants only last year, and the court accepted the case on July 15. The court accelerated the hearing, to complete it within one year.
