By CS Thana
BANGKOK
A Thai military general wanted for the trafficking of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar has turned himself into police.
Lieutenant General Manas Kongpan arrived at the National Police Headquarters in Bangkok on Wednesday morning to meet with National Police Chief Somyot Poompanmuang to hear the charges laid against him.
Police quickly escorted the general to a waiting vehicle, from where he will be transferred to Songkhla province in Thailand's south where the charges against him were filed.
Kongpan - a senior Royal Thai Army adviser - faces charges of human trafficking, detaining victims of human trafficking and holding victims for ransom in relation to a route through which victims were allegedly smuggled from Bangladesh and Myanmar through Thailand to Malaysia from Nov. 2012 until this May.
On Tuesday, he was still maintaining his innocence.
"I would like to ask the society not to jump to conclusions that I am guilty," the Bangkok Post quoted him as saying.
"I would like it to see information from both sides and let the court decide... I am asking for justice... because I can explain this and I am ready to defend myself."
According to the Post, investigators said he became a suspect when police searching his home in Ranong province found bankbooks and financial records showing transfers to his name.
Among the more than 50 suspects arrested since last month’s crackdown are top local politicians and police officers.
After more than 30 bodies were discovered in Thailand, Malaysian security forces launched an investigation that led to the discovery of 139 graves at 28 camps on their side of the border in the town of Padang Besar.
Malaysia has detained around ten policemen on suspicion of involvement in a human trafficking scandal that has led to thousands of Muslim migrants trapped on boats in Southeast Asia’s seas.
