Chaiwat, former chief of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservationspecial task force Phaya Sua or King of Tigers, said there was sufficient evidence that Premchai and his party had materials and weapons for poaching and skinning protected animals in the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary in February.

He also said there was enough evidence to prove the animals had been killed on February 3, even though Premchai’s lawyer insists the accused was not at the park when forest rangers raided the camp.

Premchai, president of Italian-Thai Development Company, did not attend the hearing yesterday, with court permission, due to health and business issues. The rest of the defendants – Yong Dodkrua, Nathee Riamsaen and Thanee Thummat, who are believed to be Premchai’s driver, chef and hunter respectively – were present.

Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary chief Wichian Chinwong, who led the arrest on February 4 and found the carcasses of protected animals including that of a black panther, was also present at court.

In February 2018, Wichien and the rangers found Premchai and his party in the prohibited areas with weapons, cooking materials and animal carcasses close to their camp. The carcasses included a black panther, which had been skinned to the bone, a Kalij pheasant and a barking deer.

The four defendants face six charges: carrying firearms in public, wildlife poaching, killing protected wildlife, possessing wild animal’s carcass, hiding or receiving illegal carcasses, and harvesting products from the forest without permission.

Bang Rak deputy inspector Lieutenant Chanachat Charoenpol said the warrant was issued for Pipatpongpat Suksawatpipat, 59, and his accomplice, who served as a getaway mortorcyclist.

Bang Rak precinct superintendent Pol Colonel Duangchote Suwancharat said police was confident that the suspect was still in Thailand and still has the diamond in his possession.

The suspect was captured by CCTV footage as he fled on a waiting motorcycle from the front of his fake jewelry shop on Si Phraya Road.

Police say Pipatpongpat got hold of the gem after posing as a jewelry trader and left the diamond owner, Indian businessman Jain Vaiphav, 44, locked in the shop.

Vaiphav, who smashed a glass panel to get out and sustained a 20-stitch gash on his arm, had advertised the diamond for sale on a website. Police suspect this gave the thieves the idea to steal it by setting up a fake jewelry shop and luring the Indian businessman to hand over the gem during purchase negotiations.

The original in the “Ten Years” series came out in Hong Kong in 2015 on the back of the “Occupy” pro-democracy protests, with versions from Japan and Taiwan exploring nuclear fallout and socioeconomic problems.

The premise asks film-makers to wrestle with the subject of what their country will be like 10 years from now, resulting in unsettling visions of bleak futures.

Big guns from Thailand’s new wave cinema, including Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Wisit Sasanatieng, worked on the four short, dark satires on army rule, censorship, mob mentality and cramped free expression, that premiered at Cannes in May.

The creators of the omnibus movie, which made it past Thailand’s unpredictable film censorship board, see it as a clarion call to encourage critical thinking in a nation run by generals since a 2014 coup.

The target audience are “people worried about the direction the country is going and unhappy with the military being so powerful for the next 20 years”, director Aditya Assarat told AFP.

Aditya’s episode, “Sunset”, shows soldiers scouring an art gallery for politically incendiary works, inspired by a real-life confrontation last year in which security forces showed up at a show and ordered exhibits to be removed.

Thailand’s junta has kept a tight lid on any form of dissent since seizing power, bringing with them a culture of censorship and banning gatherings of more than five people, an order it only lifted this week.

Censorship “harms the artists and… it harms the military as well”, Aditya told an audience at an early screening this week in Bangkok.

This handout picture shows a scene from the “Ten Years Thailand” an actress portraying a female general in futuristic regime.//AFP – Pop Pictures Co, Ltd

– ‘Catopia’ –

The Hong Kong version made a splash, picking up the top prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards in the aftermath of the massive pro-democracy protests in 2014.

The film, which painted a picture of a city under Chinese control, drew condemnation from mainland Chinese authorities.

The Thai directors hope to reach an audience beyond the arthouse crowd and strike a wider chord at a time when the country is at a turning point.

The military has set elections for February 24 but has used its four years in power to dilute the checks and balances of the country’s democratic institutions.

The country also remains bitterly divided between pro-junta elites and supporters of the Shinawatra clan — whose political parties have won every election since 2001 but have been hit by military coups and court cases.

Director Wisit explores that rift in the ghoulish “Catopia”, which imagines a world in which a man has to try and blend in among a society of human-like cats.

Dressed in suits with cat heads they represent the groupthink that takes hold among fractured political classes.

“Thailand is divided between pro-democracy and pro-dictatorship people,” he said. “Some people think that if you fight for democracy you are a dirty guy.”

Apichatpong’s “Song of the City” focuses on groups milling around a statue of former dictator Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat while using a soporific device that dulls their senses.

The most fiercely anti-junta vignette is “Planetarium” by Chulayarnnon Siriphol.

It uses 80s sci-fi imagery to envision cadets trained to spy on citizens and report to a female general in a pink uniform.

Opponents are expelled into space through a system controlled by a monk whose face is concealed with a motorcycle helmet.

Monks are venerated in Buddhist-majority Thailand and use of their images is considered inappropriate.

Viewers of the early screening were surprised it emerged unscathed from the censor’s red pen.

“I am surprised that the film has passed censorship,” Bangkok entrepreneur Naya Adam-Ehrlich told AFP.

“We need these young intellectuals, this film makes you want to act politically,” she said.

Pol Colonel Jirakit Jarunapat, a superintendent with the Police’s Children and Women Protection Sub-Division, on Thursday said his division and the Internet Crimes Against Childern (TICAC) task force had arrested the suspect, whose name was withheld due to his age.

He was arrested at a house in Bangkok’s Phra Nakhon district on December 11. A desktop computer and a cell phone, which contained 860 GB (about 300,000) obscene pictures of girls and women, were also seized.

The arrest stemmed from a five-month investigation into the sharing of pornographic material on “Kodwarp” pages on VK, Line and Facebook. They could be accessed by members who paid a fee ranging Bt300-Bt800, he said.

Following his arrest, the teenage, who is a third-year university student in the computer field, reportedly confessed to having gathered pornographic materials from various websites to distribute from his pages and group chats.

He said his public pages and groups, which are free to access, had 30,000 followers while the “VIP” groups which required an admission fee, had about 1,000 members.

He said he had been involved for three months and spent the money he earned buying brand-name goods while setting aside Bt500,000 in savings accounts.

Police said they would extend the probe and attempt to arrest those who took the photographs, he said.

Jirakit also revealed many of the victims whose compromised photos were distributed, suffered from depression and some even attempted suicide over embarrassment.

AMLO acting secretary-general Preecha Chareonsahayanon said on Thursday that the case would continue and complaints would not be withdrawn, as some people had feared.

He said the case would proceed and more ill-gotten assets would be confiscated as AMLO’s investigation followed the evidence.

Authorities would soon file a false advertising charge against 50 celebrities who allegedly promoted products for Magic Skin, Preecha said.

Preecha also said that the victims nationwide could present their evidence of damage to the AMLO to request a share of the seized assets. He said such requests could be submitted now or within 30 days after an announcement on the matter is published in the Royal Gazette.

Preecha also said authorities were checking claims that Magic Skin associates continued to use nominees in producing and distributing products, which is an act of fraud.

The popular Magic Skin products are under a cloud over reports earlier this year that the brand manufactured substandard cosmetics and boosted their profile by hiring celebrities to endorse them.

Police have found that nearly 1,000 people were affected by the alleged substandard products, which caused damages worth around Bt300 million. Charges have been laid against Magic Skin owner Wannapha Puangson and her husband Korn Puangson, as well as other business associates, including conspiring to produce and distribute products in violation of the Cosmetics Act and Food Act.

The New Species on the Block report describes three mammal, 23 fish, 14 amphibian, 26 reptile and 91 plant species discovered in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam by scientists who ventured into the region’s jungles, mountains, rivers and grasslands, often under punishing conditions.

New Species on the Block is the 10th in a series of reports highlighting species discoveries in the region.

The 157 species discovered in 2017 means that an average of three new species a week were discovered in the region, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Thirty-nine species were discovered in Myanmar, a good sign that the opening of the country to field research and conservation will yield many more species.

Vietnam had 58 new species, Thailand 35, Laos 24 and Cambodia eight.

The new species include:

● A bat whose hair bears a likeness to Lance Bass frosted tips of the band NSync, was discovered in the sub-Himalayan habitat of Myanmar’s Hkakabo Razi forest.

● A pancake-shaped catfish that was found in fast-flowing water in Myanmar’s remote Hponkan Razi Wildlife Sanctuary.

● A bamboo species from Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains with a unique bulb-shaped base that grows along roadsides, making it vulnerable to clearings.

● A tiny toad with sharp horns that was named after an elf due to its discovery in a foggy, mountainous, moss-covered “elfin forest” in Vietnam. Its habitat and eyelid horns have led some to call it the “toad from Middle Earth”.

● A newly discovered Thismia herb species from Laos that is already endangered due to its habitat being leased out for limestone mining.

● A leaf-toed gecko discovered in Thailand’s Khao Sam Roi Yot, or “Mountain of 300 Peaks”, which has two distinctive “racing stripes” from its snout to the tip of its tail.

● Myanmar’s Salween river basin mud snake, which is threatened by the development of its habitat and agricultural expansion.

● The skywalker hoolock gibbon that is listed as one of the top 25 most endangered primates on the planet.

“There are many more species out there waiting to be discovered and, tragically, many more that will be lost before that happens,” said Stuart Chapman, WWF’s Asia-Pacific regional director for conservation.

Dr Evan Quah of Universiti Sains Malaysia believes that his team’s work in discovering a snake species has shown that Myanmar’s Salween river basin is an area rich in unrecognised diversity.

According to WWF’s most recent Living Planet Report, there has been a 60 per cent population decline of the world’s wildlife in the last 40 years.

In the Greater Mekong region, the decline is probably much worse given the large-scale destruction of wild habitats and the industrial-scale poaching in many parts of the region.

In the golden triangle, where Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and China meet, endangered species are often openly sold or transported to neighbouring countries with large consumer demand for wildlife products in China and Vietnam.

There is good news though.

In Myanmar, the wildlife trade in the Yangon region is now illegal, while in Laos, a new prime minister’s order on the wildlife trade and enforcement has led to increased seizures of wildlife products.

However, with a recent ban on ivory in China, there will probably be a shift in the ivory market and more pressure on the wildlife of the Greater Mekong from tourists and traders.

“There is blood, sweat and tears behind every new discovery,” said Chapman.

“But it’s a race against time to announce a new discovery so steps can be taken to protect it before it’s too late,” he said.