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The cabinet on Tuesday approved the extension of 30-day visa-free entry for Japanese tourists to include Japanese making business visits, to facilitate investment, effective from Jan 1 next year.

Deputy government spokesman Kharom Polpornklang said the exemption was proposed by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Visa-free entry for Japanese passport holders currently applies only to tourists and is valid for 30 days. From Jan 1 it will It also be for business visits. The business exemption will continue until Dec 31, 2026, Mr Kharom said.

The measure would ensure convenience for Japanese business representatives, who were consistently Thailand’s top investors and third largest trade partners. They played a vital role in the country’s economy, he said.

Senior spokesman Chai Watcharong said many Japanese entered the country for business and investment talks and to sign contracts. The visa exemption would facilitate their entry.

Seven police detectives in Pathum Thani have been transferred to inactive posts pending an investigation into the alleged rape and extortion of a woman drug suspect.

Pol Lt Gen Jirasan Kaewsaeng-ek, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 1, gave out some details on Tuesday.

The complainant said she was detained on Nov 22-23. An initial inquiry showed a drug arrest during that period, but there was no immediate evidence of extortion or rape, he said.

“If the investigation finds that they did wrong, they will face both disciplinary and criminal action. Any police involvement in extortion and rape is intolerable,” Pol Lt Gen Jirasan said.

The woman who laid the charge works in public relations. Her name was not released.

At the government complaints centre near Government House on Tuesday, she and her boyfriend, their faces covered, said that detectives searched them at a restaurant in Rangsit area of Pathum Thani and found ketamine and methamphetamine pills.

Their mobile banking app revealed the couple had 360,000 baht in account deposits. The officers allegedly demanded 300,000 baht in exchange for bringing a trivial charge of possessing two meth pills, instead of a ketamine possession charge and assets seizures.

They were taken to ATMs in Pathum Thani and made to withdraw a total of 300,000 baht in cash, the couple alleged.

One detective then took the woman to a motel in Pathum Thani, where she was allegedly raped. The woman said she was forced to have sex and to hand over another 30,000 baht in cash, in exchange for a successful negotiation with a superior to limit the charges.

Her boyfriend learned about the sexual assault only after being released on bail. He had been held at Thanyaburi police station for possession of two meth pills. 

KHON KAEN: Former Olympic boxing champ Somluck Kamsing has not yet been called to hear a charge of sexual assault brought by a 17-year-old girl, police said on Tuesday.

Investigators had finished compiling the case details, but had yet to file a charge because the girl was not ready for interrogation, Pol Col Yosawaj Kaewsuebthanyanij, chief of the Muang Khon Kaen police station, said.

The girl was at the Khon Kaen Shelter for Children and Families, he said.

At this stage, police could take legal action only against the operator of the pub where Mr Somluck met the girl.  The pub operator was charged with allowing entry to customers aged under 20 years.

Pol Col Yosawaj said the girl entered the pub with friends from the same school she went to.

Police were looking into rumours of gang blackmail and ID card forgery to enter entertainment places.

The 17-year-old, whose name was withheld, is from Nong Kung Si district of Kalasin province. She told police when she filed her complaint on Sunday that she met 50-year-old Somluck at a pub in Muang district, Khon Kaen province, on Saturday night.

The former boxer took her to a hotel room about 3.30am on Sunday. There, she alleged, Mr Somluck sexually assaulted her.

Earlier Mr Somluck, 50, said that while in the pub he was befriended by the girl, who asked for a selfie photograph with him. Following some intimacy, he took her to the hotel.

Mr Somluck said they had both taken off their clothes. Before going further, he had asked how old she was. When the girl replied she was 17, he stopped making advances and went to asleep.

Mr Somluck said he did not go any further than that, and was certain of his innocence.

Mr Somluck was a Muay Thai fighter before turning to boxing. He earned a bronze medal at the 1989 King’s Cup and a gold medal at the 1995 event.

At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States, he won a gold medal in the men’s featherweight division. He was the first Thai athlete to win a gold medal at the Olympics.

Somluck Kamsing (photo: Kamsing family channel Facebook Page)

SURIN: Five members of one family, three of them children, have drowned while collecting sand from the bed of the Mun River in Chumphon Buri district.

Their bodies were found in water five metres deep, and recovered, on Monday night

Police and rescue workers were rushed to the Mun river at Ban Khok Klang in tambon Chumphon Buri,  adjacent to tambon Tha Muang in Buri Ram’s Satuk district, after the five were reported missing about 8pm on Monday.

Police found a farm truck, sandals and clothing of the missing people on the riverbank. Rescue teams from Buri Ram and Surin provinces searched the river and about an hour later found the bodies in the middle of the river. Relatives waiting anxiously on the riverbank burst into tears as the news spread.

The five were identifid as Viriya Khadcha, 45, his daughter Nutcharin Khadcha, 23, and her three children – girls aged 14 and 11 years and a boy aged 8. There were no indications of them having been attacked, police said.

Relatives cast no doubts over the deaths. The bodies were examined by a hospital doctor before being handed over to relatives for funeral rites. (continues below)

Clothes and sandals found left on the bank of the Mun River in Chumphon Buri district, Surin, on Monday night. (Photo: Surachai Piragsa)

Viriya’s grieving wife Bang-orn Surit, 44, said her husband went with their daughter Nutcharin and their  three grandchildren to collect sand from the river on Monday, for use in making concrete for their new house.

When darkness fell and the five had not returned, she and other relatives went to look for them. They found only their farm truck, clothes and sandals on the riverbank. She called police.

Ms Bang-orn suspected her three grandchildren were swept away by the strong river current while playing,  and her husband and daughter drowned trying to save them. There were no witnesses to the tragedy.

15 provinces red-zoned, less than half within safe limits

Hazardous smog levels continue to thicken, especially in the Central Plain, with the worst level of PM2.5 dust reaching 134.8 microgrammes per cubic metre of air on Tuesday morning, up from 96.6µg/m³ on Monday, according to the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (Gistda).

At 7am on Tuesday, 15 provinces in the Central Plain were blanketed with red-code levels of particulate matter 2.5 micrometres and less in diameter (PM2.5), including Greater Bangkok.

The worst level was in Chachoengsao province, at 134.8µg/m³r, followed by 113.5µg/m³ in Ang Thong, 110.0µg/m³ in Samut Sakhon, 109.6µg/m³ in Nonthaburi, 109.2µg/m³ in Sing Buri, 104.3µg/m³ in Chon Buri, 100.5µg/m³ in Pathum Thani, 99.8µg/m³ in Bangkok, 97.6µg/m³ in Lop Buri and Nakhon Pathom, 97.2µg/m³ in Saraburi, 96.0µg/m³ in Ayutthaya, 93.0µg/m³ in Samut Prakan, 87.8µg/m³ in Suphan Buri and 78.6µg/m³ in Kanchanaburi.

The 15 provinces were mapped with red zones of PM2.5 indicating thick smog seriously harmful to health.

Most other central plain and northeastern provinces were covered in orange levels of PM2.5, meaning the air pollution was starting to affect health.

Only 30 of the 77 provinces, 38%, were within the government’s safe threshold of 37.5µg/m³. They were in the South, the North and parts of the Northeast. The provinces included Chiang Rai, with the lowest level of PM2.5 at 7.4µg/m³, Mae Hong Son (7.6µg/m³), Chiang Mai (8.3µg/m³), Phuket (10.5µg/m³), Lamphun (11.8µg/m³), Phayao and Phangnga (12.9µg/m³), Chumphon (13.3µg/m³) and Amnat Charoen (14.0µg/m³).

Other provinces with PM2.5 levels ranging from 15.8 to 37.2µg/m³ were, in an ascending order of the levels, Mukdahan, Surat Thani, Krabi, Ranong, Lampang, Nan, Yasothon, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phrae, Satun, Phatthalung, Yala, Narathiwat, Trang, Songkhla, Pattani, Nakhon Phanom, Sakon Nakhon, Si Sa Ket, Bung Kan and Tak.

A Gistda map of Thailand shows the areas with harmful levels of PM2.5 at 7am on Tuesday.

The opposition Move Forward Party (MFP) is not concerned by rumours which claim the Democrat Party will join the government alliance, saying the pact signed by all members of the opposition bloc remains in effect, said MFP leader Chaithawat Tulathon on Monday.

He made the comment in response to the appointment of Chalermchai Sri-on as the new leader of the Democrat Party last week.

Mr Chaithawat said he did not believe the new Democrat chief would undermine the opposition bloc.

“We need to respect our colleagues, as unnecessary distrust will not lead to a better working atmosphere,” said Mr Chaithawat.

When asked about his hopes for the new parliament session, which opens today, Mr Chaithawat said he wanted all members of the opposition to come together for a discussion as a follow-up to the unofficial meetings which took place during the break.

While Mr Chaithawat has yet to receive a royal endorsement to be the next opposition leader, he said the meetings should begin right away so all parties could begin working as soon as possible.

As this session would be the last parliamentary session of the year, Mr Chaithawat said the House needs to clear the backlog of bills which have to be urgently approved — chief among which is the budget bill for the 2024 fiscal year.

He said while the opposition is not planning to launch a no-confidence motion in the upcoming session, there are plans to hold a general debate before the session closes.

Mr Chaithawat maintains that the opposition has the right to organise a censure motion to keep the government in check, but the opposition must be prepared with all the information they need before launching such a bid.

However, Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, secretary-general of the Progressive Movement, warned MFP MPs not to revert to “old tactics” in their struggle.

On Sunday, he took to X, formerly Twitter, to say that the party’s past strategies might not work any more, as “conservative forces” and the ruling elites are working together to paint the MFP’s reform ideas as impossible or impractical. As such, the party needs to step up its game and go beyond satire and online parodies to win the support of the public.

“If the MFP can’t do so in the next four years, how can the party gain 6-7 million additional votes [in the next election]?” he said.

Ex-leader says values are no longer clear

The Democrat Party is “beyond crisis” point as it continues to haemorrhage members in the wake of its change of leadership, said former party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva on Monday.

Commenting for the first time since the leadership contest on Saturday, which saw Chalermchai Sri-on elected as the Democrats’ ninth leader, Mr Abhisit used his Facebook page to claim that the party was now at breaking point.

Mr Abhisit also confirmed he was no longer a member of the party during the Saturday session.

“What baffles and distresses me is how much we in this room have realised the gravity of the beyond-crisis state the party is in,” he told the meeting.

Mr Abhisit was nominated in the leadership contest by party patriarch and former Democrat leader Chuan Leekpai. However, Mr Abhisit turned down the nomination and announced his resignation instead.

His refusal to enter the race came after it was reported the party vote may have been engineered to favour Mr Chalemchai, a former party secretary-general and acting leader at the time of the election.

The party’s decline, as shown by its drop in MPs from 53 in the 2019 general election to 25 in this year’s poll, did not stem from its internal structure, regulations or a lack of finances, according to Mr Abhisit.

In fact, at no time in the party’s history had a secretary-general managed to mobilise more support for the party than Mr Chalermchai did while he was occupying the post, Mr Abhisit said.

The party has slumped to a low ebb because people have failed to see what the Democrat Party stands for or what ideals it represents.

In a country split into the conservative and pro-democracy camps, the Democrats have been unable to emerge as a choice for the people.

Voters in the conservative bloc favoured former premier Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, while the pro-democracy side thought the Democrats were a Prayut ally.

“It’s all about establishing where we stand and which groups of people we can represent and in what way.

“Politics has its ups and downs. However, there’s no guarantee a down will be met with a rebound if we don’t learn our lesson,” he said on Facebook, conveying what he told the party election on Saturday.

Critics have said the party under Mr Chalermchai’s leadership could lose its traditional and solid stronghold in the South. The party is also in danger of relying too heavily on winning constituency MPs, which can be highly competitive races.

At one point during the Saturday meeting, Mr Abhisit had a 10-minute break with Mr Chalermchai. Ten minutes later, Mr Abhisit returned to the meeting and announced he had relinquished party membership.

“I declare before you all that I have no plan to defect to another party.

“Slit my wrists, and I bleed blue,” Mr Abhisit said, referring to the Democrats’ emblematic colour.

Also yesterday, more high-profile Democrats and former MPs, namely Sathit Wongnongtoey and Orn-anong Kanchanachusak, quit the party. On Saturday, former party MP and former deputy public health minister Sathit Pitutecha said he had left the party.

Mr Sathit Wongnongtoey said that he had decided to part ways with the Democrats after 28 years as a member because he now believed the party’s principal and true spirit could no longer shine.