NAKHON SI THAMMARAT: Fugitive Chaowalit Thongduang aka Sia Paeng Nanod landed at Nakhon Si Thammarat airport on an Indonesian plane on Tuesday evening, ending seven months on the run from Thai justice.
Police were planning to interrogate him before turning him over to the Department of Corrections to begin his sentence for attempted murder. Other charges including murder still await him.
A source said on Tuesday night that the Department of Corrections had asked for four armed police commandos from the Crime Suppression Division to bring Chaowalit from Nakhon Si Thammarat airport to the Bang Kwang Central Prison in Nonthaburi on Wednesday morning.
They would board a police plane that is scheduled to take off from Nakhon Si Thammarat at 9am.
A chartered plane carrying Chaowalit landed in the southern province at 5.38pm on Tuesday. The 37-year-old fugitive was handed over to senior police officers including immigration officers, the commissioner of Provincial Police Region 8 and the commander of Nakhon Si Thammarat police.
Immigration police charged him with sneaking out of the country. He also faces a charge from Nakhon Si Thammarat police of escaping from custody.
Security was heavy along the 23-kilometre route from the airport to the Nakhon Si Thammarat police station to prevent Chaowalit from escaping again.
Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong said corrections authorities were taking extra measures to prevent Chaowalit from escaping or taking his own life once he is returned to prison.
He promised to take legal action against any officials who assisted in the previous escape.
Mr Tawee said authorities were still piecing together the story of how Chaowalit escaped to Indonesia. He said Indonesian authorities had given their Thai counterparts complete information about Chaowalit’s stay in the country.
Chaowalit was serving time for attempted murder and was facing multiple other criminal charges, including murder and firearms possession. On Oct 22 last year he fled from Maharaj Nakhon Si Thammarat Hospital after being taken there for dental treatment.
After the escape, police tracked him to a hideout in the Banthad mountain range in Trang on Nov 8. Following a shootout, he escaped again into the mountainous terrain that straddles Phatthalung, Trang and Satun provinces.
Despite a massive manhunt, the inmate managed to evade capture. It was later reported that he was believed to have left Thailand in a speedboat from Satun.
While on the run, Chaowalit released a series of videos in which he claimed he had been unfairly treated.
He claimed he was the only person sentenced for his crimes despite numerous other suspects being involved. He also claimed his appeal for bail in the pending murder case had not been handled fairly.
On Dec 25 Chaowalit was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for attempted murder. The conviction stemmed from the shooting of a court assistant at a restaurant in Muang district of Phatthalung on Sept 9, 2019. His four co-defendants also received handed life terms.
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Fugitive Chaowalit Thongduang is helped into his seat on an Indonesian plane during his extradition on Tuesday. (Photo supplied)
