DPM confirms innocence of Thai soldiers in Mekong murder case

BANGKOK, September 21 (TNA) - Thai Deputy Prime Minister General Yuthasak Sasiprapa says that nine Thai soldiers who were earlier alleged of involving in the killing of 13 Chinese sailors in the Mekong River near the Golden Triangle in the Thai North late last year have been confirmed to be innocent. In response to recent reports that alleged Golden Triangle drug lord Naw Kham had told Chinese authorities that the nine Thai soldiers killed the 13 Chinese sailors in the Mekong River last October, retracting his earlier confession to the crime, General Yuthasak acknowledged on Friday that Naw Kham had failed to provide the evidence to his accusation against the nine Thai troops. Naw Kham, a suspect behind the killings of the 13 Chinese sailors, flew to face trial in China recently, after Laos handed him over to Chinese police. However, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday that Naw Kham has now pleaded guilty when he and five other people were standing trial in southwest China. Therefore, the trial, which opened Thursday morning at the Intermediate People's Court of Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, ended later on Friday. Naw Kham, the head of an armed drug gang from Myanmar, expressed his penitence to the victims and their families in court, hoping for leniency. He denied plotting the attack. However, the five other defendants on trial all testified in court that Naw Kham was the gang's ringleader who masterminded the attack. (TNA)