The police chief has set up an inquiry into Pol Maj Gen Paween Pongsirin's claims he received threats to his life from "influential people" while chief investigator of the high-profile Rohingya human trafficking case.
Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijida said the ad hoc panel will find out if there are grounds to Pol Maj Gen Paween's claims, and whether any other investigators on his team had received similar threats, particularly those working in areas under the Region 8 and Region 9 provincial police bureaus.
Pol Gen Chakthip gave no further details, but said he expected to see the first results from the investigation this week.
Pol Maj Gen Paween, former deputy commissioner of provincial police Region 8 and chief investigator of the Rohingya trafficking case, is reported to have sought asylum in Australia.
In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and The Guardian Australia, an online edition of The Guardian newspaper, in Melbourne, he asserted that influential people were involved in human trafficking in Thailand.
He said there were many more government officials who should be prosecuted, including some at senior levels.
Pol Maj Gen Paween said while heading the investigation into the Rohingya case he was frequently warned off. He blamed “influential people” for his transfer to the deep South, which prompted his protest and eventually his resignation from the police service on Nov 5.
“By posting me to the deep South of Thailand it meant they wanted to kill me,” he said, referring to his being transferred to the position of deputy commissioner of the Region 8 Provincial Police Bureau.
He said he feared for his life and was hoping Australia would grant him asylum.
Pol Maj Gen Piyapan Pingmuang, a deputy police spokesman, said an examination of daily records at local police stations revealed Pol Maj Gen Paween had never filed a complaint about his receiving threats to his life.
Since Pol Maj Gen Paween was a police officer, his interview with foreign media could be inappropriate, because he was not an ordinary citizen who could easily be threatened, the spokesman said.
In fact, if he really received threats he should file a police complaint so that an investigation could be made and Pol Maj Gen Paween himself could then enter the witness protection process, Pol Maj Gen Piyapan said.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, when asked to comment, said he would like Pol Maj Gen Paween to return home and tell him what had actually happened to him.
"Come back. Tell me what had happened. Just file a police complaint and we will arrest whoever did that to him. Who made the threats? Was he really threatened?
"No matter what, we must first find out what's right or wrong. Why did he say that?
"My question is whether he still loves this country. He was born in this land, why has he become estranged from it?" Gen Prayut said.
Asked whether Pol Maj Gen Paween's interview would affect Thailand's ranking in the United States' human-trafficking report, Gen Prayut did not reply. He said the reporters should help bring him back instead of allowing him to damage his own country.
The prime minister said the country must abide by legal principles. He did not want people to make rash decisions without going properly through the justice process.