Lese majeste convict dies behind bars

BANGKOK, May 8 (TNA) - Ampon Tangnopphakun, also known as Akong, who had been sentenced to jail for lese majeste, died Tuesday at the age of 61, as the chief of the Corrections Department has promised justice in an autopsy. Police Colonel Suchart Wong-anantchai, Director-General of the Thai Ministry of Justice's Corrections Department, told reporters before the autopsy that the examination would be done by four parties in line with the Thai laws, comprising local police, corrections officials, doctors and public prosecutors. The Corrections Department chief said that the convict had suffered from oral cancer, but had only stomach pain and had not any other serious symptom last Friday when he was admitted to the Corrections Department Hospital. The Corrections Department chief guaranteed justice in the autopsy, saying that he did not make any special preparation in response to reports that demonstrators would show up at a concerned prison. Meanwhile, Rosmalin Tangnopphakun, the widow, told journalists that a corrections official informed her on phone of her husband’s death Tuesday morning without giving any detail, saying that she did not expect his death as he had not had any pain until last Friday when he had complained with her during her visit about his stomachache and weakness. (TNA)