Police ex-chief Chalor freed after 19 years jail
PIYANUT TUMNUKASETCHAI
THE SUNDAY NATION October 27, 2013 1:00 am
DISGRACED FORMER police commissioner Chalor Kerdthes, who was at the centre of the infamous Saudi Blue Diamond case, was freed yesterday after serving 19 years in Bang Kwang Prison for his involvement in abduction and double murders in 1994, a senior Corrections Department official said.
Chalor, 72, would have to report himself to a probation official at the Ratchadaphisek Criminal Court every month.
Bang Kwang central prison commander Wasant Singkhaselit said yesterday that he had approved the suspension of punishment for Chalor. The former police commissioner was released at 2pm on Friday on the grounds that he had served a jail term of more than 19 years - more than two-thirds of his sentencing - and he was over 70 years old with chronic illness.
Wasant said the prison had arranged for him to undergo surgery for slipped disk but he still suffered from paralysis of the left hand hence he was unable to take care of himself and required assistance from other inmates.
Chalor headed the investigation to find the jewellery that a Thai worker stole from the palace of a Saudi Arabian prince in 1989. He was sentenced to death for his role in the 1994 abduction and murder of Darawadee Srithanakhan and her son to force her jeweller husband Santi Srithanakhan to give information about the stolen jewellery.
Chalor was also given a jail term for tampering with evidence and a jail term for Santi's abduction. He was stripped of his rank of Pol Lt-General and was ordered to return his royal decoration in 2010, after which he changed his name to Thachapol.
