More suspects charged over Thai earthquake building collapse depart police station

(16 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS -
Bangkok, Thailand - 16 May 2025
1. Wide of Thai earthquake building collapse suspects leaving police station
2. Close of suspect
3. Zhang Chuanling, Chinese national involved with development of building that collapsed during earthquake, leaving police station
4. Suspect hiding face leaving police station
5. Media outside police station
6. Wide of suspect leaving police station
7. Various of Premchai Karnasuta, main Thai contractor for building project, charged with the felony of professional negligence causing death, being taken out of police station in wheelchair and loaded into police car
8. Wide of Bangkok deputy police chief Noppasin Poonsawat at news conference
9. SOUNDBITE (Thai) Noppasin Poonsawat, Bangkok Deputy Police Chief:
"I'm waiting for other evidence so that we can cover all aspects. I'd like to insist that we are working straightforwardly, and will pursue charges against everyone who has an involvement."
10. Wide of police vehicles with suspects inside leaving station for Criminal Court
STORYLINE:
A construction magnate and several builders, designers and engineers surrendered to police Friday on criminal negligence charges for the deadly collapse of a Bangkok high-rise in the March 28 earthquake that hit Myanmar.

Premchai Karnasuta, the president of Italian-Thai Development Co, the main Thai contractor for the building project, was among the 17 people charged with the felony of professional negligence causing death, Bangkok police said.

They added that those who met police on Friday formally denied the charges.

Several previously issued public denials in response to allegations in the media.

Ninety-two people were confirmed dead in the rubble of the building that had been under construction and a small number of other people remain unaccounted for.

The building, which was to become a new State Audit Office, was the only one in Thailand to collapse in the earthquake that was centred in neighbouring Myanmar.

The search for victims at the site has been halted, though efforts to identify remains through DNA will continue.

According to police, evidence and testimony from experts suggested the building plan did not meet standards and codes.

The Bangkok Post newspaper reported that police also determined the project showed "structural flaws in the core lift shaft and substandard concrete and steel”.

Thai media had reported allegations of wrongdoing in the project almost every day since the building’s collapse, many of them involving irregular documentation for the project.

Their reports also highlighted the role of Italian-Thai’s Chinese joint venture partner, the China Railway No. 10 company, which is involved in projects around the world.

It is Premchai’s second major tangle with the law.

In 2019, he was convicted of wildlife poaching and served about three years in prison.

He was found guilty of killing protected animals and illegal possession of weapons after park rangers found a hunting party at a wildlife sanctuary in 2018 with carcasses of a rare black panther, a kalij pheasant and a barking deer.

The panther had been butchered and its meat cooked for soup.

AP video by Tian Macleod Ji, Jerry Harmer

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