In his weekly national address on television on Friday, the premier cited the recent World Happiness Report 2017 ranking Thailand as the 32nd happiest country in the world, one place higher than the previous year.

“To move step by step steadily will help build country’s good image on the international stage. Please don’t destroy or distort one other but help to fix problems and develop the country,” he said.

The survey was conducted by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and ranked 155 countries by their perceived happiness levels.

Prayut said several factors were taken into consideration for the ranking. They included GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life’s decisions, generosity, and trust as measured by a perceived absence of corruption in government and business sectors.

Launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2012, the SDSN mobilises scientific and technical expertise from academia, civil society and the private sector in support of sustainable development problem-solving at local, national, and global levels.

The station will be closed from 11.30pm to 3am every day after the last night train departs Hua Lamphong.

The joint efforts by the SRT and the Ministry of Social Welfare and Human Security is aimed at tackling the problem of homeless people and beggars using the railway station to stay overnight. It is also aims to elevate the standard of the station to international level.

Passengers waiting to catch predawn trains must register at a counter in front of the station with their ID cards. After registration, the passengers will be allowed to wait outside on the footpath in front of the station.

Railway police will be deployed 24 hours to ensure security.

The DSI wants to interrogate them as it suspects an attempt to revive the political conflicts of the past.

Investigators reportedly opposed attempts to seek bail for the accused.

The nine suspects – seven men and two women – are charged with illegal possession of weapons and criminal association. Yesterday, they were handed over to the police by the military and made to appear at the press conference at the Crime Suppressions Division headquarters.

In addition to the nine arrested, police are still seeking four others – a woman and three men, including Ko Tee, 48, who is wanted for possessing unregistered weapons and ammunition without permission.

The club, comprising Muslim leaders in Bacho, said it had earlier tried to participate in the project because it was an important ancient site and a part of the local heritage. They had also invited Malayu art experts to design the learning centre. However, the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre later hired a Pathum Thani-based private joint venture, and it was unclear if this company had the required experience and knowledge to restore a Malayu architectural religious site, they said.

Club vice president Muhammad-Sulhan Lamata earlier this week issued a call for a halt to the project to the Foreign Ministry, the National Legislative Assembly and the Office of the Ombudsman. “We want the government to suspend this project because one contractor company is having an issue of bankruptcy and cannot work inside the mosque but only in the surrounding area,” he said.

Pictures released recently appear to show that Chaiyapoom Pasae, a Mathayom 4 student and a role-model teenager, co-operated with a search by soldiers of his car at a checkpoint near his village on March 17.

The pictures, leaked by a Facebook page opposing the Single Gateway Internet control idea, appear to contradict the claim by authorities that Chaiyapoom resisted soldiers’ operations and pulled out a knife and a hand grenade before he was shot in self-defence by a soldier.

Some 20 representatives of non-governmental organisations yesterday urged the NHRC to launch a probe into the killing of Chaiyapoom.

NHRC member Angkhana Neelapaichit said a subcommittee, chaired by NHRC member Chatchay Suttiklom, would be in charge of investigating the extrajudicial killing to determine whether the soldier used excessive force.

“But I myself will try to discuss witness protection with local officials,” Angkhana said.

She said she had heard that a mentor of Chaiyapoom had found a bullet in front of his house, which could be considered a warning, after he tried to defend the activist’s name.

Kriengkrai Cheechuang, a coordinator for the Network of Indigenous Peoples in Thailand, said that witnesses to the killing were facing intimidation to keep them silent.

“The NHRC must act fast or information regarding the case will be distorted,” he said during his visit to NHRC headquarters.

Police and military officers have strongly suggested that Chaiyapoom might also have been involved in the drug trade. Soldiers have claimed 2,800 methamphetamine tablets were found in Chaiyapoom’s car following the shooting. Police have also said an anti-narcotics team had monitored Chaiyapoom for months previously on suspicion he was selling illicit drugs.

People close to the teenager disbelieve the accusations.

Rattanaporn Chuakaew, a coordinator of Dee Jung Young Team network, said she doubted the claims that Chaiyapoom was a suspected drug trafficker.

“We know Chaiyapoom. He was really on the path of an activist for constructive activities,” Rattanaporn said. “We will seek justice for him.”

Sumitchai Hattasarn, a lawyer from the Centre for the Protection and Revival of Local Community Rights, said he and two other lawyers would represent Chaiyapoom.

“Our team visited the scene of the shooting and found out that several locals witnessed the incident,” he said.

He said his team had not yet talked to Phongsanai Saengtala, who was with Chaiyapoom at the time of the shooting and is now detained in Chiang Mai Prison.

“His family has not yet agreed to appoint us as his lawyers so we can’t meet him,” Sumitchai said.

Justice Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana said he would ensure justice to all sides in the case. “Those who feel injustice can lodge a complaint at the Justice Ministry,” he said.

THE NATIONAL Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) is poised to seize the estimated Bt65 million in overseas assets of Juthamas Siriwan, the former governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), and her daughter, pending a Criminal Court verdict on the controversial case next Wednesday.

Juthamas, who allegedly received Bt65 million in bribes from a US business couple in return for the couple’s rights to hold the lucrative 2007 Bangkok Film Festival, earlier faced an investigation by the NACC for being “unusually rich” after leaving public office.

Based on a money trail provided by the US Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the ill-gotten money was found to have been deposited in several foreign bank accounts in five countries and territories, namely the UK, Ireland, Singapore, Jersey and Switzerland, via California.

Nittiphun Prachuabmoh, an NACC director in charge of overseas affairs, said the anti-graft agency will forward the case to the Office of the Attorney-General for further action on asset seizure.

The case is claimed to be the first of its kind where the NACC is seeking to seize assets overseas from people found guilty of official corruption in Thailand.

This case has progressed with the cooperation of agencies in the US which earlier convicted the American couple, Gerald and Patricia Green, to a six-month jail term plus another six months of house detention and a US$250,000 fine, for paying bribes to foreign officials under the US Foreign Corrupt Practice Act (FCPA).

An equivalent total of Bt65 million in bank deposits will be sought by the NACC for asset seizure.

Nittiphun said there had been coordination with US authorities in freezing Juthamas’ overseas bank accounts under a United Nations anti-corruption convention.

The US investigation into this case started in early 2010 when the FBI took legal action against Gerald and Patricia Green for breaking the US law on foreign corrupt practices.

Money was paid to the Thai chief of tourism affairs for the rights to hold the then-popular and lucrative international film event in Bangkok.

Later, the NACC received help from the US Justice Department and FBI, which provided all the legal documents in this case to Thai authorities for further action against the former tourism chief.

The ill-gotten funds were reportedly put under the name of Juthamas’ daughter and later deposited in multiple foreign bank accounts.

The amount of funds in this case is less than a recent Rolls Royce-Thai Airways International bribery case, in which more than Bt1.2-billion worth of bribes were allegedly paid to Thai officials.

The NACC is still in the early stages of building the case against wrongdoers in the Rolls-Royce-THAI case, including former transport and deputy transport ministers, a former THAI chairman and a former THAI president, as well as other senior airline and government officials.

Based on documents from UK and US authorities, there was evidence that Rolls Royce, a UK-based aircraft engine maker, paid multi-billion-baht bribes to Thai officials in return for the contracts to sell engines to the national-flag carrier from the 1990’s to early 2000’s.

A MAN ARRESTED for allegedly possessing war weapons has said they belonged to red-shirt leader Wuttipong “Ko Tee” Kotthammakhun and that more weapons were stored in two shipping containers.

Thirachai Uttarawichien, who has been arrested along with eight others following raids by authorities at nine locations in seven provinces last week, said yesterday Ko Tee told him a senior politician informed him about the alleged cache of weapons hidden inside two shipping containers.

The suspect told a press conference at the Crime Suppression Division that he believed Ko Tee was referring to former interior minister Charupong Ruangsuwan, a key figure in Pheu Thai Party who was previously its secretary general. “But I don’t think Ko Tee saw weapons in the containers by himself.”

Thirachai claimed he met Ko Tee three times in Laos – the last time in February.

“Every time we met, Ko Tee never ordered me to create any incident. I believe that he has no potential to create any unrest,” the suspect said. But he said Ko Tee had made a threat to kill certain government leaders.

One of the nine suspects is Sakon Nakhon resident Palida Ruangsuwan, 61, described in some media reports as a relative of Charupong.

The nine suspects – seven men and two women – are charged with illegal possession of weapons and criminal association. Yesterday, they were made to appear at the press conference at the CSD headquarters.

Earlier, the military, which made the arrests under special post-coup powers, had handed over the suspects to the police.

In addition to the nine arrested, police are still seeking four others – a woman and three men, including Ko Tee, 48, who is wanted for possessing unregistered weapons and ammunition without permission.

Thirachai said he had worked for Ko Tee at the latter’s Red Guards Radio, a pro-red shirts community radio station in Pathum Thani, since 2013. He said he did not know how Ko Tee got the assault rifles and other weapons but Ko Tee had put them in his care after the 2014 coup. The suspect said he had learned that the weapons had been used “only twice” – in clashes with Ko Tee’s political |enemies.

However, a security source said yesterday some suspects had confessed that some of the confiscated weapons were used during the political unrest in 2010.

At that time, red-shirt supporters of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra held street protests for two months after the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders ordered the seizure of Bt46 billion of his assets, which were found to have been earned dishonestly while in power.

More than 90 people were killed and over 1,000 others injured during the unrest.

Meanwhile, Thaksin’s lawyer yesterday filed a police complaint against senior journalists Sonthiyan Chuenruthainaitham and Yukol Wisetsang, for suggesting in their TV show that the ex-PM was connected to Ko Tee. Lawyer Chumsai Sriyapai, representing Thaksin, said Sonthiyan and Yukol committed libel for doing so.