The actions of a Thai janitor twenty years ago sent into motion a series of events that weave a mystery bound in greed, violence and corruption worthy of a thriller novel. It also strained the diplomatic relations between two countries for more than twenty years now.
In 1989, a Thai janitor working at the royal palace in Saudi Arabia stole some jewelry. He shipped part of it back to Thailand and took the rest back with him when he returned to Thailand shortly thereafter. While the janitor knew that he was stealing valuable jewelry, he did not realize that he had stolen the 50 karat Blue Diamond, a family heirloom of the Saudi royal family.
When the Saudi's discovered the missing jewels and janitor, of course they petitioned the Thai government for help. Getting back the Blue Diamond was of prime importance. Of course the Thai government would be willing to help; over 200,000 Thai citizens worked in Saudi Arabia. These workers sent back money to help support their families, and in turn the Thai economy. The Saudi's were also a wealthy country who had investments in Thailand. So the complete and utter cooperation of the Thai government and police was assured, right? It appeared so at first, but quickly became apparent that not everyone was so willing to cooperate.
The jewel thief was found hiding in Thailand as were most of the jewels. He had sold some of the jewels, and had buried some of the others. One of the jewels not recovered was the Blue Diamond. To add insult to injury, shortly after receiving the returned jewels, the Saudis claimed that seventy percent of jewelry that was returned was faked. There were allegations that one of the missing pieces was seen on the arm of the wife of a high ranking Thai police officer at a party.
Obviously there was much speculation as to what happened to the jewelry. Anyone familiar at all with the Thai police force would hardly be shocked that many believed some of the jewelry may have been misappropriated a second time after it was recovered from the initial thief.
If the story ended there with the jewelry not recovered, it would be a decent mystery. What could anyone do with the Blue Diamond? I know its valuable, but I imagine it would be difficult to sell it without the Saudi's finding out about it. Its one thing for the Thai government or any other government for that matter to say "sorry we can't find it", while its quite another to know where it is and ignore Saudi Arabia's call for its return. I guess you could keep the diamond in your estate and maybe show it to only your most discrete and close friends. I'm not quite sure. For good or bad, the story doesn't end there.
In early 1990, four Saudis attached to the Saudi Embassy in Thailand were gunned down in an apparent assassination. A Saudi businessman related to the Saudi royal family also disappeared shortly after. The Saudi's believed that the murders and the disappearance were related to the jewelry theft. The Thai investigation of the jewelry theft and the murders went no where, despite pressure from Saudi Arabia. The Saudis closed their embassy in Thailand, and kicked out all of the Thai workers from its kingdom. They also refused to invest money in Thailand. The Saudis made it clear that normal relations depended on the Thais solving the murders and the recovery of the Blue Diamond.
Soon after the 1990 Saudi murders, the wife and son of a jeweler who had purchased some of the stolen jewelry when it first came to Thailand were found dead in an apparent car crash. An investigation soon revealed that they were in fact murdered and the car crash was staged. Several high ranking Thai police officers were charged with murdering the two. My understanding is that they had abducted the pair to use as leverage to force the jeweler to talk, and I think that they couldn't find him. Or instead, perhaps they were used to send a message to him to be quiet. I'm not sure. In any case, the police officers were convicted of murdering the two Thai citizens and sentenced to jail terms.
Here we are in 2010, and as of last week, there had been no arrests for the murder of the Saudis, the disappearance of the businessman or the jewelry theft. Apparently there were five high ranking police officers suspected, but they were never charged. Unlike most U.S. jurisdictions, which have not statute of limitations on murder charges, Thailand has a twenty year statute. On February 13, 2010, the statute will expire and after which no charges can be brought against anyone. The Saudis have sent an envoy to Thailand and are pushing to have an investigation completed in time to charge whomever is guilty. The Saudis said that they hoped that the investigation could be free from political pressure.
There was a break yesterday, as the five suspects were charged with the murders and later released on 500,000 baht bond. The Saudis were reportedly pleased with the charges, but indicated that full diplomatic ties would not be restored until progress had been made on the Blue Diamond and the missing businessman. Reportedly a new piece of evidence, a ring belonging to one of the slain embassy workers, was found. That is the explanation as to why they were able to proceed now and not before. One more skeptical than I might think that perhaps that explanation is a bit of a CYA to explain why nothing had been done for twenty years.
Its seems pretty clear that while these police wield some power and influence themselves, someone with more power had to be protecting them. This incident has cost Thailand an enormous amount of money. Today there are 10,000 Thai workers in Saudi Arabia, but that is only a fraction of the 200,000 that worked there in 1990. And while Saudi Arabia invests in Thailand's neighbors, Thailand is left out. At some point prior to these past few months, there had to have been pressure from inside the government to resolve this case. This isn't blowing off the murder of a vacationing expat and the theft of his $500 watch. This involves the murder of embassy personnel and the theft of a national heirloom.
It will be interesting to see what happens. While one defendant has already said that he will fight this in court, I would not be surprised if there were guilty pleas. Of course, it would be much more interesting if there were not.
No comments:
Post a Comment