Thai construction magnate facing charge over Bangkok tower collapse surrenders to police

BANGKOK (AP) — A construction magnate, builders, designers and engineers surrendered to police Friday on criminal negligence charges over the collapse during the March 28 earthquake of a Bangkok high-rise in which 92 people died.

Premchai Karnasuta, president of Italian-Thai Development Co, the main Thai contractor for the building project, as well as designers and engineers, was among 17 charged with the felony of professional negligence causing death, Bangkok deputy police chief Noppasin Poonsawat said.

Noppasin said those who met police on Friday formally denied the charges. Several have previously issued public denials in response to allegations in the media.

Ninety-two people were confirmed dead in the rubble of the building that had been under construction. A small number of other people remain unaccounted for.

The building, which was to become a new State Audit Office, was the only one in Thailand to collapse in the earthquake that was centered in neighboring Myanmar. The search for victims at the site has been halted, though efforts to identify remains through DNA will continue.

Noppasin said at a news conference that evidence and testimony from experts suggested the building plan did not meet standards and codes. The Bangkok Post newspaper said police had also determined the project showed "structural flaws in the core lift shaft and substandard concrete and steel."

Thai media have reported allegations of wrongdoing in the project almost every day since the building's collapse, many of them involving irregular documentation for the project. Their reports have highlighted the role of Italian-Thai's Chinese joint venture partner, the China Railway No. 10 company, which is involved in projects around the world.

One of the 17 charged Friday was Chinese executive Zhang Chuanling, a director at China Railway No. 10’s joint venture with Italian-Thai Development. He was previously arrested last month on a charge of violating Thai business law by wrongly using Thai nominees to serve as the Chinese firm’s proxies to allegedly control the joint venture. Three Thai executives were also arrested on the charge.

A Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the 17 on the negligence charge on Thursday. Noppasin said 15 turned themselves in at a police station in the morning and the remaining two were expected to do so later.

All 15 were driven in police vehicles to the Bangkok Criminal Court, which approved a police detention request and denied the suspects' bail applications, local media reported.

The epicenter of the quake was in central Myanmar, where it killed more than 3,700 people and caused major damage in Mandalay, the country's second biggest city, and the capital Naypyitaw.

Premchai's case is his second major tangle with the law. In 2019, he was convicted of wildlife poaching and served about three years in prison.

He was found guilty of killing protected animals and illegal possession of weapons after park rangers found a hunting party at a wildlife sanctuary in 2018 with carcasses of a rare black panther, a kalij pheasant and a barking deer. The panther had been butchered and its meat cooked for soup.