Thailand’s Supreme Court ruled on the case involving three men convicted of murdering Australian auditor Michael Wansley in 1999, reports The Nation.
The three defendants filed the appeal with the Supreme Court in 2011 after the Court of Appeals upheld their sentences handed to them by the Criminal Court in 2006.
Wansley had allegedly discovered fraud at the mill during an audit and “refused to keep quiet about it,” which incited the assassination.
Prosecutors on the original case claimed that Bunpan Suthiwiriyawan, the former chief of personnel and public relations for the sugar mill, his brother Somchok and a third man, Sompong Buasakul, were allegedly hired by Pradit Siriviriyakul, the owner of Kaset Thai Sugar Co, to murder Wansley.
The Thailand criminal defense attorneys at Chaninat and Leeds’ have been prosecuting and defending national and international clients in Thailand since 1997.
The three men were charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Bunpan was sentenced to life in prison for being an accomplice to murder, while Somchok and Sompong were given the death penalty for committing murder.
According to The Nation, Pradit was acquitted “for lack of solid evidence that he had hired the three to commit the crime.”
In February 2015, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s sentence of life imprisonment for Bunpan and acquittal of Pradit, but struck down the death sentences for Somchok and Sompong, handing them life imprisonment sentences instead.
Read the full story here.
