ANN/THE NATION THAILAND – Thailand’s Songkhla Provincial Court sentenced four of six defendants to death for the murder of a Malaysian businessman in 2015.
He was killed following a legal dispute over a debt of about THB270 million.
Lee Ah Han, 54, had been involved in a legal dispute with another Malaysian national who reportedly owed him.
Lee was killed to wipe out the debt, police said.
On December 4, 2015, Lee and his wife were shot by a man using an automatic rifle while they were in their black Mercedes-Benz S300 on Kanchanawanit Road in Hat Yai district.
They had been trailed by three vehicles. Lee’s wife was injured but survived.
The three vehicles were driven by a group comprising one Malaysian man, four Thai men, and one Thai woman.
Three of the men, including the Malaysian national, and the woman pleaded innocent. All received the death penalty.
The shooter and his driver, both Thai, admitted their guilt and were sentenced to life in prison.
Provincial attorneys carefully reviewed the evidence and interviewed the witnesses because it was a high-profile, violent crime, said deputy spokesman of the Office of the Attorney General Kosolwat Inthujanyong.
Kosolwat said the pair who pleaded guilty initially said they were innocent.
After learning that their accomplices – who hired them to murder Lee – tried to blame the murder entirely on them they admitted their guilt, Kosolwat said.
