ARREST WARRANTS have been issued for 11 people – four policemen who have been dismissed from the civil service and seven civilians – implicated in the Mae Hong Son coerced-prostitution ring scandal.

Deputy police spokesman Pol Colonel Krissana Pattanacharoen said yesterday that national police chief General Chakthip Chaijinda instructed case investigators to gather evidence and prosecute those involved without exception.

Anti-Human Traffic Division (ATHD) inspector Pol Lt-Colonel Sitthinan Sitthikamjorn said yesterday before five civilian suspects were transported to Bangkok, that they still maintained their innocence and refused to implicate others. He said officers would be applying for more arrest warrants soon.

AHTD officers yesterday brought five suspects, including four women, for interrogation at the Royal Thai Police (RTP) head office in Bangkok.

Deputy national police chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul attended the interrogation.

During a press conference yesterday, the former police informant said no other people were involved in the ring and the five civilians had supplied 20 girls to customers.

A 43-year-old former police informant, who exposed the prostitution ring in the search for her victimised teenage daughter, was also brought in to identify suspects.

Meanwhile yesterday, applications for arrest warrants filed for a police corporal in Provincial Police Region 5, a police lieutenant colonel in the Border Patrol Police Bureau and a public school teacher were dismissed.

Mae Hong Son provincial court said the men – accused of paying for sex services from the prostitution ring – were civil servants with known addresses and were not a flight risk.

In denying the warrants, the court asked police investigators to issue summonses for the three men instead, a source at the RTP said.

Arrest warrant applications were filed for three other local policemen on April 29 relating to the same case. The court also dismissed recommended the issuance of summonses on the same grounds.