The Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division is gathering evidence to initiate civil suit against Italian-Thai Development boss Premchai Karnasuta and his poaching team for allegedly causing ecological damage to Thung Yai Naresuan wildlife sanctuary.
The charge was suggested by the prosecutor at the the Public Prosecution Region 7 after reviewing the 857-page case file of Thung Yai Naresuan wildlife hunting submitted by the police to prosecute them.
The prosecutor has asked the police to assess damage cost of the alleged poaching activity by Mr Premchai’s group so that a civil suit to demand compensation could also be filed.
Chaiwat Limlikhit-aksorn, chief of Phaya Sua Task Force of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, put the damage cost at 3 million baht for the killed wild animals, including the black panther.
He said, however, damages to the ecological system of the forest was invaluable.
Deputy commissioner of the Royal Thai Police Pol Gen Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said that investigators will determine what impact the hunting party made on the ecology so that a civil suit for damages can be made.
He added that the public prosecutor’s request for the police to conduct further investigation into three issues of the wildlife poaching case did not mean that the police’s case file was not complete.
Pol Gen Srivara said the case file was 99% complete, the remaining 1% has been left to the discretion of the Public Prosecutors Office.
On the matter of civil suits for damages that was the authority of the Public Prosecutors Office, he said the Royal Thai Police has no power on this matter unless ordered by the Public Prosecutor.
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