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29 March 2024

Thai man held for Japanese murder 19 years ago

Published
By AFP

A Thai man arrested in his home country for the murder of a Japanese woman in Tokyo almost two decades ago will be prosecuted in the kingdom's courts, an official said Tuesday.

Veerasak Iampongsa, 39, was detained at a bus terminal in southern Thailand on Sunday after a court issued a warrant for his arrest for the premeditated murder of 33-year-old Megumi Awaji in March 1993.

"The suspect will be prosecuted here in the Thai courts under the joint justice programme between Thailand and Japan," the deputy head of the Thai Crime Suppression Division, Colonel Prasobchok Prommoon, told AFP.

Japanese police asked their Thai counterparts in April to arrest Veerasak but there is no extradition treaty between the two countries.

At a news conference in Bangkok on Monday, Veerasak publicly confessed to killing Awaji while he was working in Japan. He said the pair were living together and quarrelled. He fled the country soon afterwards.

"I never forgot about it. I'm sorry and apologise to her relatives. I did it due to my short temper," he said.