BANGKOK, Thailand – The Criminal Court has sentenced former cabinet minister Soonthorn Vilawan, 87, to death for the murder of a Prachin Buri councillor who was his adopted son, with the sentence subsequently commuted to life imprisonment. Chaimet Sitsanitphong, 49, was found dead inside Soonthorn’s house in Muang district of Prachin Buri on 11 December 2024, with police investigators saying he had been shot 22 times with a shotgun and handguns.

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Chaimet had gone to Soonthorn’s house to seek support for his wife’s plan to run for the president’s seat in the Prachin Buri Provincial Administration Organisation, of which Soonthorn is a former president. A Muay Thai boxing promoter, Chaimet was considered the right-hand man of Soonthorn, whose family has dominated Prachin Buri politics for decades.

Witnesses said the two men talked on the ground floor of the residence before they quarrelled, Soonthorn cried, Chaimet prostrated himself in front of his adoptive father and then walked out of the house. When Chaimet reached the gate, he walked back into the house and stayed there for about 20 minutes longer, after which multiple gunshots were heard.

The Criminal Court has sentenced former cabinet minister Soonthorn Vilawan, 87, to death for the murder of a Prachin Buri councillor who was his adopted son. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

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Soonthorn told the court that he fired three warning shots towards the outside of the house and did not kill Chaimet, but although there were no eyewitnesses to the shooting, circumstantial evidence including bullet paths and gunshot residue indicated Soonthorn was among the people who shot Chaimet, prosecutors said. Soonthorn and six of his aides were taken into custody after the shooting, and the court believed that Soonthorn used a shotgun belonging to an aide to fire three shots at Chaimet.

Three other defendants were also sentenced to death for the same crime as Soonthorn, namely Thanasarankorn Techathanatchot, Saksit Chinnawong and Apisit Sodchuen, with the sentences of all four commuted to life imprisonment for their useful testimony, the court said.

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Soonthorn, a Bhumjaithai Party member and father of former deputy education minister Kanokwan Vilawan, served as a deputy public health minister from 1996 to 1997 in the Chavalit Yongchaiyudh government and was an eight-time MP for the eastern province. He made headlines in June 2022 over alleged forest encroachment in Khao Yai National Park, and in February 2024 the Supreme Court banned Kanokwan, a former Bhumjaithai MP, from elected office for life for forest encroachment.

-Thailand News (TN)