
Thai tycoon surrenders over deadly skyscraper collapse
The 30-storey Bangkok tower crumbled in seconds, killing 89 people, mostly construction workers, when a magnitude-7.7 tremor hit neighbouring Myanmar on March 28.
The building being constructed to house the State Audit Office was the only structure to collapse in the Thai capital, raising serious concerns about safety standards and oversight.
A Thai court on Thursday issued arrest warrants for 17 people on charges of "professional negligence causing death", including Premchai Karnasuta, CEO of Italian-Thai Development (ITD), one of the kingdom's largest construction firms.
Premchai and 14 other suspects reported to Bangkok's Bang Sue Police station where "they denied all charges", district police chief Sanong Sangmanee told AFP, adding the remaining suspects were due Monday.
If convicted, the 71-year-old magnate faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of 200,000 baht ($6,000).
Livestream footage from local outlet The Reporters showed Premchai in a wheelchair as officers escorted him from the police station to court.
A court official told AFP that Premchai will be held in pre-trial detention while prosecutors continue their investigation.
This is not the tycoon's first legal tangle.
In 2021 a Thai court sentenced him to three years and two months in prison for poaching protected wildlife, including a black panther.
He was released early in 2023 as part of a group of inmates granted clemency for good behaviour.
According to public filings with the Stock Exchange of Thailand, Premchai owns nearly 12 percent of ITD's shares.
Thai justice department investigators said Friday they will probe cement plates used in the tower's construction to gather further evidence for their case.
© 2025 AFP

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


AFP
4 hours ago
- AFP
Bricks from Malaysia and New Jersey misrepresented amid LA unrest
"Soros funded organizations have ordered countless pallets of bricks to be placed near ICE facilities to be used by Democrat militants against ICE," says a June 7, 2025 Facebook post from David Harris Jr, a commentator supportive of US President Donald Trump whom AFP has previously fact-checked for spreading misinformation. Image Screenshot from Facebook taken June 11, 2025 The post references George Soros, a billionaire Democratic megadonor commonly targeted by right-wing and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. In another post shared June 8 on X, American actor James Woods, who has also repeatedly peddled misinformation, shared a photo of a different stack of masonry. "It's not like these 'protests' are organized though…," he wrote. Image Screenshot from X taken June 9, 2025 Similar claims citing either of the two images of bricks rocketed across social media platforms amid protests in Los Angeles that broke out June 6, triggered by immigration raids and arrests of what federal authorities say are undocumented migrants and gang members. Los Angeles officials have said the demonstrations were in large part peaceful but punctuated by scattered violence, including moments during which participants torched cars and law enforcement fired tear gas. The unrest continued to escalate over several days, with Trump clashing with California leaders as he bypassed the governor to deploy the state's National Guard to the city -- and active-duty US Marines. Other protests have also spread elsewhere in the country. Local news outlets have reported that some of the protesters in Los Angeles have thrown objects at officers and police cruisers, including rocks and fireworks. But the two widely shared photos showing stacks of bricks are unrelated. Malaysian hardware dealer traced the first image to a Malaysian hardware and construction dealer's page on Building Materials Online, a Malaysian online marketplace (archived here and here). Image Screenshot from taken June 11, 2025 The distributor, Ng Lian Seng Hardware Trading, is based in the town of Jinjang, northwest of Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur. Reached by AFP, a worker at the dealer said the store took the picture and uploaded it to Build Materials Online more than eight years ago. Google Street View imagery appears to show matching pallets of bricks piled up at the location (archived here). Image Screenshot from Google Street View taken June 11, 2025, with elements outlined by AFP New Jersey construction The second photo can be geolocated using Google Street View to West New York, New Jersey (archived here). Image Screenshot from X taken June 9, 2025, with elements outlined by AFP Image Screenshot from Google Street View taken June 11, 2025, with elements outlined by AFP A journalist with the fact-checking website Lead Stories visited the location June 9 and photographed additional construction equipment they found stationed beside the same heap of bricks (archived here). They also observed scaffolding set up along a nearby building, where contractors appeared to be working on the exterior. A well-worn narrative Fearmongering narratives about piles of bricks have become a common trope among accounts that traffic in misinformation since the nationwide protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, when images from construction sites were misrepresented in posts claiming authorities or left-wing groups were stashing bricks near planned demonstrations to foment violence. Similar claims have resurfaced around prominent court trials, trucker convoys and the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where protesters demonstrated against Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza. "These days, it feels like every time there's a protest, the old clickbaity 'pallets of bricks' hoax shows up right on cue," said the Social Media Lab, a research center at Toronto Metropolitan University, in a June 9 post on Bluesky (archived here and here). "You know the one, photos or videos of bricks supposedly left out to encourage rioting. It's catnip for right-wing agitators and grifters," it added. AFP has debunked other misinformation about the Los Angeles protests here, here and here. Raevathi Supramaniam contributed to this report.


France 24
13 hours ago
- France 24
Starmer condemns two nights of 'mindless' N.Irish violence
The unrest that has injured 17 police officers has included rioters throwing petrol bombs, fireworks and bricks, while homes as well as businesses have been attacked. The violence was triggered by the arrest of two teenagers accused of attempting to rape a young girl. The pair appeared in court on Monday where they asked for a Romanian interpreter. "We strongly condemn the racially motivated violence witnessed in recent days and make an urgent appeal for calm across society," said ministers from every party in the UK province's power-sharing executive in a joint statement. Residents had been "terrorised" and police injured, they added, urging people to reject the "divisive agenda being pushed by a "destructive" minority. Starmer joined them in condemning "mindless attacks". Six people were arrested during the second night of riots in the town of Ballymena, around 48 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of Belfast, and other places. "Hate-fuelled acts and mob rule do nothing but tear at the fabric of our society -- they resolve nothing and serve no one," said Chief Constable Jon Boutcher. Police will not confirm the ethnicity of the two teenagers who remain in custody, but areas attacked on Monday included those where Romanian migrants live. Four houses were damaged by fire, while rioters smashed windows and doors of homes and businesses. "Police officers came under sustained attack over a number of hours with multiple petrol bombs, heavy masonry, bricks and fireworks in their direction," the Police Service of Northern Ireland said in a statement. 'Terrifying' scenes Some of the 17 officers injured had required hospital treatment. Five people were arrested on suspicion of riotous behaviour while a sixth was detained on suspicion of disorderly behaviour in Newtownabbey, 30 kilometres away, one of four other places including Belfast where protests erupted. Tensions in Ballymena, which has a large migrant population, remained high throughout the day on Tuesday. Residents described the scenes as "terrifying" and told AFP that those involved were targeting "foreigners". Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson on Tuesday denounced the violence as "racist thuggery" and said it had been "clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police". The unrest comes as immigration is increasingly a hot-button issue across the United Kingdom -- England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland -- and in the neighbouring Republic of Ireland. Some 20 percent of Ireland's 5.4-million population is now foreign-born. Official data showed a population increase fuelled by migration of around 100,000 in the year to April 2024 -- the largest since 2007. The last census in 2021 put the number of people in Northern Ireland who identified as Roma, a distinct ethnic group whose population is largely concentrated in eastern and central Europe, at around 1,500 or 0.1 percent of the population. The official figures do not indicate how many are longstanding residents or recent immigrants but the census put the number of Romanian-born people living in the province at 6,612.


France 24
13 hours ago
- France 24
France eyes social media ban for under-15s after school stabbing
A secondary school pupil was arrested on Tuesday after killing a 31-year-old school assistant with a knife during a bag search in Nogent in eastern France. Friends and well-wishers left flowers and messages of support in front of the secondary school struck by the tragedy. "We share your pain," read one message. Laurence Raclot, who knew the teaching assistant, Melanie, said she was "stunned". "She was great with kids," Raclot said. "In a quiet little town, we never would have thought this could happen." A former hairdresser, Melanie had retrained and worked at the school since September. She was the mother of a four-year-old boy and a councillor in a village near Nogent. "There are no words," added another local, Sabrina Renault. "It's really sad for her whole family, for that little boy who's left without his mum." Pupils and parents were seen entering and leaving the school, where a psychological support unit has been set up. The suspect will remain in police custody for a further 24 hours, until Thursday morning, a police source told AFP on Wednesday. Little information has been released about his motive. - 'Cannot wait' - In the wake of the attack, authorities promised a raft of measures to tackle knife crime among children. "I am proposing banning social media for children under 15," President Emmanuel Macron said on X on Tuesday evening. "Platforms have the ability to verify age. Let's do it," he added. Backed by France and Spain, Greece has spearheaded a proposal for how the EU should limit children's use of online platforms as evidence shows that social media can have negative effects on children's mental and physical health. Macron said on Tuesday that if no progress was made within several months, then France would go ahead with the ban unilaterally. "We cannot wait," he told broadcaster France 2. France has in recent years seen several attacks on teachers and pupils by other schoolchildren. In March, police started random searches for knives and other weapons concealed in bags at and around schools. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Francois Bayrou's office said a ban on the sale of knives to minors will be implemented by a decree issued within the next two weeks. Speaking to broadcaster TF1 on Tuesday evening, Bayrou said that the measure would come into force "immediately". The list will include "any knife that can be used as a weapon", he said. He also said parents and educators should be watching for "signs that a teenager is not doing well", while acknowledging that there was a shortage of psychologists. Bayrou has also called for a trial of metal detectors in schools. Education Minister Elisabeth Borne called for a minute's silence to be held in all French schools at midday on Thursday to honour the memory of the teaching assistant. "The entire educational community is in shock, as is the whole nation," she told France Inter radio on Wednesday. Borne said she was "open to anything" to improve safety but added that ceramic blades would be invisible to metal detectors. She also said that young people should be protected from "overexposure to screens". But trade unions said they were not sure how these proposals would be implemented and enforced. "Teaching assistants have primarily educational duties within the school environment," said Sophie Venetitay, general secretary of the SNES-FSU teachers' union. But, she added, "little by little, we have seen attempts to turn them into security guards." Remy Reynaud of the CGT Educ'action union criticised the government's decision to introduce bag searches outside schools. "They increase tensions," he said. "School management are pressuring teaching assistants to participate in the searches, which is not part of their duties." © 2025 AFP