Thailand providing psychiatrist to Thai convicted in Cambodia

BANGKOK, Feb 22 (TNA) - The Thai government will provide a psychiatrist to a Thai national convicted and sentenced by a Cambodian court to 20 years in jail for planting landmines along the Thai-Cambodian border after learning that he is has mental health problems, according to Chavanont Intarakomalsut, secretary to Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya.

Mr Chavanont said representatives of the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh had visited Suphap Wongsaprapa on Friday and after talking with him the consular officials found him to be confused and unable to relate the incident in a coherent manner.

He said the ministry had earlier received information that Mr Suphap had a case history as a mental patient and was previously admitted as a patient at a hospital in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen.

If the government could prove that Mr Suphap had mental disorders, it could provide an option for requesting the Cambodian government to reduce his jail term, he said.

In addition, Mr Chavanont noted that while Mr Suphap is a civilian, he was sentenced by a Cambodian military court.

Mr Chavanont said the Thai embassy would coordinate to help him appeal the verdict and requested the Cambodian government to allow a psychiatrist from Thailand, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) or any international organisation to visit and check whether he is suffering mental illness in order to ask for humanitarian assiastance.

He added that Mr Suphap has a criminal record, as he was jailed for five years for striking his father, after which he disappeared from sight. No one could contact him for 10 years from the time he was released from jail until he was arrested in Cambodia.

International media reported that 39-year-old Suphap was sentenced to 20 years in a Cambodian jail after he confessed in proceedings that he had planted at least five landmines in Cambodia's Anlong Veng town near areas claimed by both countries.

The news service said that he was arrested one year ago and that the Khmer authorities charged him with attempted murder, endangering national security and entering Cambodia illegally.

The Cambodian court record was quoted as saying Mr Suphap was arrested by Cambodian border guards just a few metres inside the country while carrying a land mine on February 27 last year. (TNA)