Police yesterday brought along officials from the Department of Groundwater Resources (DGR) to inspect the embattled entertainment venue in Bangkok’s Huai Khwang district.

Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Division deputy commander Pol Colonel Suwat Intasit said preliminary tests showed water samples from Victoria’s were of a different quality to tap water provided by the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority.

“In Bangkok, if you want to use groundwater, you have to seek a permit,” he said, adding that failure to do so is a legal offence. If convicted, offenders face up to six months in jail and/or a maximum fine of Bt20,000.

Suwat said the last time a permit was sought for the venue was in 2003 by a previous owner, not the current one.

He said that pollution-control officials were also inspecting Victoria’s to determine if it violated laws regarding wastewater treatment and discharge.

Meanwhile, Deputy Metropolitan Police Commissioner Pol General Srivara Ransibrahamanakul instructed police to collect water used at all other massage parlours in Bangkok by last night.

In regard to records showing that a superintendent of the Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) received services at Victoria’s between 7.30pm and 10pm on January 10, the MPB ordered that all its superintendents submit a report on the allegation by noon tomorrow.

On January 12, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) and the military raided into the Victoria’s and found evidence of alleged illegal activities.

DSI chief Pol Colonel Paisit Wongmuang said that his agency had already asked the Anti-Money Laundering Office to probe Victoria’s financial transactions and freeze relevant bank accounts.

THE NATIONAL Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has lodged complaints against eight leaders of the People Go Network.

In response to the complaint, police issued summonses to Lertsak Khamkongsak, Anusorn Unno, Nimit Tien-udom, Somchai Krajangsaeng, Saengsiri Trimankha, Nuchanart Tantong, Ubon Yuwa and Jamnong Nuphan.

All of the accused work for non-governmental organisations, except Anusorn, who is the dean of Thammasat University’s Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology.

The charges against them follow a rally that took place at Thammasat Rangsit Campus last Saturday, which drew about 150 participants and included anti-government speeches.

The NCPO assigned a representative to file a complaint with Klong Luang Police in Pathum Thani province on Sunday and the eight have been directed to answer the summons this Sunday.

“I think we will have to answer the summons,” Nimit said.

A police source said if the accused fail to appear on Sunday without a good reason, a second summons would be issued.

“And if they fail to answer again, they will face arrest warrants,” the source added.

Surachai Trong-garm, a lawyer for the People Go Network, said authorities should stop citing the NCPO’s very broad order banning political gatherings to block people’s rights to free assembly.

“We will definitely fight back,” he said.

He said he would have a meeting with several lawyers for the People Go Network today to plan a defence.

Surachai also said he expected the Central Administrative Court to soon start holding trials regarding his complaint that police had tried to disrupt his network’s peaceful march.

The march, known as “We Walk”, started at Thammasat University’s Rangsit Campus last Saturday and, in order to avoid violating the NCPO’s ban on the gathering of more than five people, included no more than four individuals at any one time.

The complaint was lodged with the Central Administrative Court on Sunday and although the court refused to immediately issue an injunction, trials are expected soon as the march continues.

The organisers plan for the march to cover 450 kilometres and end in Khon Kaen province. It was organised to bring attention to the need for state welfare, universal healthcare, food security, freedom of expression, human rights and a just society for all.

“Because of pressure from the authorities, people do not dare show support for our group along our way,” Surachai said.

Meanwhile, Ekachai Isarata of the NGO Coordinating Committee on Development’s Southern Branch said the junta’s legal action against the “We March” leaders showed it did not understand the concept of freedom of expression as enshrined in the Constitution.

“Such freedom is the basic right of people,” he said. “I think the government has made a mistake in invoking legal measures to try to restrict people’s expression.”

School director Nathapop Boonthongtho was transferred out of the school to an inactive post pending a disciplinary panel’s investigation. Nathapop did not show up at work this week.

If he is found guilty, he will be sacked from the civil service and also face criminal charges, Nakhon Ratchasima Primary Education Service Area Office 6 deputy director Supapongsa Chantharang said yesterday.

A Ban Patong Thanoen Samakkee School committee and teachers this week brought the scandal to the media’s attention by producing Line chat messages from the girl’s mobile phone as evidence.

That evidence prompted the Nakhon Ratchasima Primary Education Service Area Office 6 to establish a disciplinary panel to investigate the allegation and prepare assistance for the Mathayom 2 student.

The office’s Promotion of Educational Provision Group head, Khomkrit Mumthaisong, yesterday led panel members to visit the school to investigate the alleged three-month relationship, which reportedly started shortly after the school director took a position at the school.

The committee was expected to gather evidence and report its result to the office’s director within seven days, Supapongsa said.

A friend of the victim told the panel that the girl previously had a boyfriend in Mathayom 3, but after Nathapop took the job at the school he had made advances and had an “intimate relationship” with her.

The friend said the school director would tell the girl to skip classes to go on trips and stay with him at a resort.

The victim had said she was “in love” with Nathapop and he had promised to ask the girl’s family for permission to marry her on February 14, the friend said.

In another development, Paiwan Haithong, the leader of a residents’ group calling for Nathapop to be punished, filed a libel complaint against him at Bua Yai Police Station, claiming she had received a threatening phone call from him in which he had made accusations about her son.

The 134-page report, “Hidden Chains: Forced Labor and Rights Abuses in Thailand’s Fishing Industry,” and a 15-minute film were released at a briefing at the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday.

While the illegal-fishing yellow card that the European Union placed on Thailand and the country’s inclusion on the United States’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP)’s Tier 2 Watch List have helped to improve the situation, HRW found widespread shortcomings in the implementation of new government regulations and resistance in the fishing industry to reforms.

“Consumers in Europe, the US and Japan should be confident that their seafood from Thailand didn’t involve trafficked or forced labour,” said Brad Adams, HRW’s Asia director. “Yet, despite high-profile commitments by the Thai government to clean up the fishing industry, problems are rampant.”

In compiling the report, the New York-based rights group interviewed 248 current and former fishery workers, almost all from Myanmar and Cambodia, as well as Thai government officials, boat owners and captains, civil-society activists, fishing association representatives, and United Nations agency staff.

Of the fishery workers interviewed, 95 were former workers who survived documented incidents of human trafficking, while the other 153 were, with a few exceptions, still active in the sector.

The research was carried out in every one of Thailand’s major fishing ports from 2015 to 2017.

After the EU’s yellow card for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and the TIP downgrade in 2014, the Thai authorities responded by scrapping antiquated fishing laws and issuing a new ordinance to regulate the industry.

Migrant fishery workers were required to have legal documents and be accounted for on crew lists as boats departed and returned to port, helping to end some of the worst abuses, such as captains killing crew members.

Thailand also created the Port-in, Port-out (PIPO) system to require boats to report for inspections as they departed and returned to port, and established procedures for the inspection of fishing vessels at sea.

Some measures, such as vessel-monitoring systems and limiting time at sea to 30 days, have led to important improvements for fishery workers, the HRW report said.

However, measures to address forced labour and other important labour and human rights protection measures often prioritise form over results, according to the report.

Despite significant resources provided to the Labour Ministry and its departments, there is no effective or systematic inspection of those working aboard Thai vessels, the rights agency said.

In its 2015 report on human trafficking, Thailand revealed that inspections of 474,334 fishery workers failed to identify a single case of forced labour.

More recently, over 50,000 inspections of migrant workers implausibly did not find a single instance where laws on conditions and hours of work, wages, treatment on board, and other issues in the Labour Protection Act of 1998, the 2014 Ministerial Regulation, and attendant regulations had been violated, the report stated.

“The Thai government’s lack of commitment means that regulations and programmes to prevent forced labour in the fishing industry are failing,” Adams said. “International producers, buyers, and retailers of Thai seafood have a key role in ensuring that forced labour and other abuses come to an end.”

Thai labour law makes it difficult for migrant workers to assert their rights. Fishery workers’ fear of retaliation and abuse by boat captains and vessel owners is a major factor, but Thailand also restricts the rights of migrant workers to organise into labour unions to take collective action, it added.

“No one should be fooled by regulations that look good on paper but are not properly enforced,” Adams said. “The EU and US urgently need to increase pressure on Thailand to protect the rights, health and safety of fishery workers.”

The report also provided accounts from workers in the fishery sector.

“I didn’t know what was going on when I arrived. They just put me in a lock-up, and it was only when the boat came in that I realised that was where I’d have to work. I went to do my pink card application on the 4th, and on the 5th I was out on the boat,” said a Myanmar trafficking survivor at Bang Rin, in Ranong province, in March 2016.

“You can’t leave because if you leave you won’t get paid, and if you want to leave at the end it’s only if they let you. Unless you leave without your money and your [pink] card, you have to obtain their permission,” said Bien Vorn, a Cambodian fishery worker in Rayong province in November 2016.

All of the accused, except Anusorn, are representatives of people’s networks or non-governmental organisations.

Anusorn is the current dean of Thammasat University’s Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology.

Police have summoned the eight to face charges in connection with a rally that took place last Saturday. They say the rally, which drew about 150 participants, included anti-government and slanderous speech.

The accused suspects are required to answer to the summons on January 28.

“I think we will have to answer to the summons,” Nimit said.

The NCPO filed a complaint with Klong Luang Police in Pathum Thani on Sunday.

After the rally, the marchers set off from Thammasat University’s Rangsit Campus and to avoid violating the NCPO’s ban on the gathering of more than five people, had no more than four in it at any one time.

The organisers have planned for the march to cover 450 kilometres and end in Khon Kaen province.

The event has been organised to draw attention to the need for state welfare, universal healthcare, food security, freedom of expression, human rights and a just society for all.

Dolev Zuarez and Eyal Bokal were arrested on Sunday at a Bangkok airport for allegedly stabbing to death Mallil, 34, and injuring his girlfriend Rashel Oshana in broad daylight at the popular tourist area of Chaweng Beach.

The duo, who were brought back to Surat Thani to face murder charges, were taken to Amper Koh Samui Hospital.

Dr Theerasak Wiriyanon, hospital director, said police requested urine and blood tests for both suspects to know whether they had consumed any drugs before allegedly committing the crime.

After the tests, they were brought back to the police station for further investigation.

Pol Maj-General Angkoon Klaiklueng, the regional tourism police commander, on Monday said police were informed by the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok that the victim had been sentenced by an Israeli court to 20 months in jail for trying to run over both suspects before opening fire on them.

The suspects allegedly followed him to Koh Samui to get revenge. They allegedly tried to run him down, and then used a knife to stab him to death.

In addition to the police investigation, Songwuth Udom also faces a departmental inquiry over the killing of Chalit Jintana, the director of Tambon Plai Na Suan Hospital.

Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation chief Thanya Netithammakun said on Tuesday that an initial investigation had found that the shooting might be related to Songwuth’s personal conflict with the 39-year-old Chalit.

Thanya also instructed supervisors to enact stricter controls over forest protection officials’ possession of HK33 assault rifles and ensure that rifles are returned after patrols are completed.

Songwuth reportedly was armed with an HK33 rifle while he was out on a forest patrol and did not return the weapon afterwards.

Salak Phra wildlife conservation chief Paitoon Intharabutr said he did not know the motive for the killing and his inquiry with other officials could not confirm that Songwuth had had a conflict with Chalit, who had been working in the area for two years.

He also described Songwuth as “a diligent official” who was “well-loved by his co-workers”. He added that he would let justice run its course.

Chalit was killed at 6.45pm on Monday on a local road in Ban Mae Lamoon village.

Songwuth later surrendered to police and admitted he had fired twice at Chalit’s car with his HK33 rifle because he had mistaken the man for an illegal logger.

Songkhla border patrol police armed with a court warrant arrested Abideen Tohming, 31, a resident of Songkhla’s Sabayoi district, in Soi Ramkhamhaeng 5 in Bangkok’s Suan Luang district on Monday.

He was brought back to Songkhla the same day.

Police allege that he was involved in bomb attacks at a market in Songkhla’s Thepa district and obtained four arrest warrants against him.

Public prosecutors previously filed three charges against him but Songkhla Court dismissed all the cases.

Public prosecutors later decided not to follow through on the fourth charge against him of being part of criminal syndicate and causing damage to agricultural crops.

However, the attorney general changed the decision and ordered him to be charged on the fourth warrant, so he was arrested in Bangkok.

After announcing the shock result of its testing on 30 hydroponic vegetable samples from across the country, Thai-PAN – along with the BioThai Foundation – urged producers and distributors of hydroponic vegetables and concerned agencies to come up with measures to reduce the use of chemicals in their cultivation, establish a standard to limit contamination, and ensure food safety for consumers.

Thai-PAN coordinator Prokchon Usap said that 19 of the 30 samples tested, or around 63 per cent, were contaminated with an unsafe level of chemicals, while three samples were found to be contaminated with chemicals at an acceptable level. No contamination was found in the other eight samples.

Prokchon pointed out that the hydroponic vegetables were found to be more toxic than traditionally grown vegetables, as an earlier test on the latter by Thai-PAN had showed that around 54.4 per cent were contaminated with a high level of chemicals.

“People often believe that hydroponic vegetables are safer from chemical contamination than traditionally grown ones, but our examination proves this belief wrong, as soil-less-grown vegetables are also found to contain 25 kinds of chemical used in agriculture,” she explained.

“An even more concerning finding from our test is that 17 of the 25 kinds of chemical are absorbent chemicals, which are very hard to clean out,” she added.

The coordinator also revealed that some kinds of hydroponic vegetables such as Chinese kale, lettuce and spinach were found to be contaminated with a very high level of nitrate up to 6,000 milligrams per kilogram of vegetable, but there was still no official recommendation about such contamination.

BioThai Foundation coordinator Kingkorn Narintarakul na Ayutthaya said there was a misunderstanding among the public that organic vegetables, which do not use chemicals during the entire production process, were similar to hydroponic vegetables, but Thai-PAN’s testing had proved this to be wrong.

“Hydroponic-vegetable producers should lower their chemical use, as in reality growing hydroponic vegetables can be more easily managed than the traditional growing method, while the Agriculture Department should set up measures to control the chemical use in hydroponic vegetables to ensure consumer safety,” Kingkorn suggested.

Dolev Zuarez, 24, and Eyal Bokal, 26, were arrested at Don Mueang airport in Bangkok about five hours after they allegedly killed Maor Mallil, 34, and injured his girlfriend Rashel Oshana in broad daylight on the popular tourist area of Chaweng Beach.

The attack was captured by a roadside CCTV camera and the story featured prominently on various Thai media outlets yesterday morning.

Police said the suspects driving an SUV appeared to run over Maor Mallil, 34 and his girlfriend Rashel Oshana, who were riding on a motorcycle on Chaweng Beach-Ban Choeng Mon Road in front of Samui International Hospital in Tambon Borphud, Samui district.

Mallil is then seeing trying to assist his girlfriend with the help of his friend riding another motorbike when the SUV reversed and hit him again.

Then the two suspects allegedly got out of the SUV and stabbed Mallil repeatedly before speeding off.

The victim was pronounced dead at a hospital while his girlfriend was seriously injured.

Pol Maj-General Angkoon Klaiklueng, the regional tourism police commander, said police had asked the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok for information after the arrests of Zuarez and Kokal.

“We were informed that Mallil, the victim, had been sentenced by an Israeli court to 20 months in jail for trying to run over both suspects before opening fire on them. After he was released from jail, he travelled to Thailand and the suspects followed him to get revenge,” he said.

Deputy national police chief Pol General Chalermkiat Srivorakan claimed both suspects confessed to the murder as they had a bitter history with the victim.

He was speaking after both suspects were taken back to Koh Samui to face charges.

Police had been tipped off after the crime that the two suspects would board a Thai Lion Air flight from Surat Thani International Airport to Bangkok before trying to escape overseas.

Zuarez and Bokal were arrested soon after arriving at the airport at 9.30pm after boarding Thai Lion Air flight SL747 from Surat Thani. Tourist police flew them back to Surat Thani yesterday to face murder and assault charges.

Speaking at the same press conference, Pol Maj-General Surachet Hakparn, deputy tourism police commander, quoted the Israeli Embassy as saying that both suspects were allegedly middle-rank mafia figures who were influential in Israel.

“They had assaulted Israeli police and have prior records of drug-related crimes. They are believed to be from a different gang than that of the victim,” he said.

The suspects arrived in Thailand on January 11 on visas that allowed them to stay for 30 days. Both men had entered and left Thailand several times previously.

“The suspects had followed the victim to Koh Samui over quite a period of time and, when the time was right, they allegedly committed the crime,” Surachet said.

He also complimented police for quickly arresting the suspects within five hours of the crime.

“For now, they are still denying the crime. We, however, have solid evidence from our search at their hotel, such as a knife and clothes they wore during the crime,” he said.

The clothes and other items had been sent to forensics officers to collect fingerprints, Surachet said.