An extravagant police officer and luxury car enthusiast falls from grace following the leak of chilling images of a brutal interrogation that went wrong.
It's not the plot of a successful thriller, but the living reality of a story that has gripped Thailand in recent weeks and highlighted the corruption of the police, which, according to experts, affects almost all layers of society in the kingdom.
See: A video shows police torturing and killing a man in Thailand
The case of Thitisan Utthanaphon, a former police station chief in a rural province, nicknamed 'Joe Ferrari' for his extravagant lifestyle, has sparked calls for police reform.
This 41-year-old man is accused of murder, abuse of power and other offenses after a drug suspect was smothered with six plastic bags around his head in an alleged attempt to extort 2 million baht.
The incident was initially covered up and recorded as an amphetamine overdose, until a lawyer revealed the cause of death in a Facebook post.
In a typical move by patronage networks that, according to critics, underpin systemic corruption, Colonel Thitisan was then transferred to a regional police office in a neighboring province, commanded by the father of his TV presenter girlfriend.
This is what usually happens when a police officer is accused of a crime in Thailand, he is simply transferred to another police station and the story ends there.
But the worst was yet to come for him: another lawyer released a frightening video leaked by a subordinate police officer showing Colonel Thitisan suffocating the handcuffed suspect while other officers held him to the ground.
The subordinate officer asked the lawyer to follow the case before he and his fellow officers were killed.
This should give pause to the difficult situation in which honest police officers can find themselves in Thailand, because in general, it is the most corrupt police officers who rise the fastest through the ranks of power.
The video went viral, shocking the kingdom and prompting the police to arrest Colonel Thitisan and several other officers.
After fleeing and threatening to kill himself, Colonel Thitisan surrendered to the police and denied all the charges against him.
Sittra Biabungkerd, the lawyer who published the video, told AFP that he had done so to prevent police officers from "covering for each other to get away" with murder.
“Many people may think that interrogating suspects with plastic bags is a thing of the past because times have changed,” he said.
“But this case shows that in reality, it still happens in secret.”.
Flashy cop and fast cars…
Joe Ferrari's luxury cars. Photos by the Royal Thai Police
Revelations about Colonel Thitisan's lavish lifestyle and numerous celebrity connections made headlines after his arrest.
Investigators told Thai media that he owned a luxurious villa in Bangkok, a fleet of 42 luxury cars and a personal fortune estimated at 15 million euros, all on a police commissioner's salary of 40,000 baht (1,026 euros) per month.
Activist Srisuwan Janya told AFP that the anti-money laundering authority had been tasked with investigating Colonel Thitisan's wealth.
"It is impossible for a man with a salary of 40,000 baht to own 40 cars, including luxury cars," said Mr Srisuwan.
Part of Colonel Thitisan's vast fortune comes from the auction of hundreds of luxury cars imported and seized by Thai customs, according to senior officers cited by local media.
Investigators must submit their findings to the National Anti-Corruption Commission on September 24 before deciding whether to refer the case to the Attorney General.
A difficult police reform
After seizing power as army chief in a 2014 coup, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha promised to eradicate corruption.
Seven years later, the Joe Ferrari affair shows the lack of results in eradicating police malpractices, and observers have little hope of serious change.
The reform has been a "spectacular failure" because those at the top are shielded by "protection and favoritism" and whistleblowers are punished or silenced, said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, an analyst at Chulalongkorn University.
In an attempt to revive police reform, the government approved a draft amendment to the national police law earlier this year.
But the bill remains under deliberation in parliament and is moving at a snail's pace, with committee members, some of whom are former police officers, haggling over the details.
See: Police reforms in Thailand are 'years behind'
As the Prayut administration depends on the support of the police, it is cautious about reform, said Paul Chambers, a lecturer at Naresuan University.
“The only change that the Joe Ferrari affair is likely to bring about is that corrupt police officers will take greater care to hide the illegal activities they are involved in,” Mr. Chambers told AFP, highlighting repeated efforts in the past to reform the police.
“No reform has worked and none is likely to work anytime soon.”.
The chief of the Thai Royal Police, Suwat Jangyodsuk, attributed the current scandal to “a rotten apple.”.
But public trust in the police force has been eroded for a long time.
Almost all Thai entrepreneurs, whether their business is legal or not, know they have to pay the local police to be able to operate, whether they are motorbike taxi drivers, street food vendors, brothel owners or drug traffickers.
Nearly half of Thais reported having paid bribes to the police in the past 12 months, according to a Transparency International study published in November 2020.
And the Thai economic crisis, fueled by the pandemic, has only exacerbated corruption, with the police having received more power to enforce Covid-19 related laws.
Thailand has lost 19 places in Transparency International's corruption ranking since 2014, and is now ranked 104th out of 180 countries.
See also:
Joe Ferrari: the luxurious life of the controversial former police chief in Thailand
Further details on the Thai police killers case: autopsy confirms murder
Will Thai police officers protect their murderous colleague?
The jewelry store robber in Thailand was actually a police officer
Source: Bangkok Post
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6 comments
And for those who like to read crime novels, I recommend the Bangkok 8 series:
Bangkok 8 by John Burdett, an excellent thriller to discover!
It's a fictional story but one that highlights the sad reality of the state of the police in Thailand.
Corruption in Thailand, and not just in the police where it is omnipresent and actually poses a daily problem for honest police officers (there are some and they are mostly non-ranking officers.) is rooted very, very deeply in society and in the spheres of different powers, political, economic, financial and illegal, such as the proven collusion of certain senior officials and officers, ranking police officers with the moguls of all kinds of trafficking (arms, drugs, human trafficking, money laundering, false documents, bribes, etc., etc., etc…
The establishment of a police reform is a parody and a smokescreen that has been going on for 20 years…
And just intended to provide arguments and pseudo-evidence of willingness to reform to the people who are part of the committee set up with respect to a population that has been duped and expropriated, facing daily corruption worthy of small crooks and slackers on a small scale…
In reality, the members who are part of the police reform commission (to name just that part of corruption in Thailand) are politicians who, as the article says, are often themselves from the police or army backgrounds, former senior officers who have maintained close contacts with the hierarchy in place and linked to various shady dealings in the past, kept under silence for many years, buried and sealed under a generalized "omerta".
We don't have to look elsewhere for the near-stagnation of this reform commission, whose members are neck-deep in conflict of interest…
One solution would be to establish an independent commission (first, it will be necessary to explain to Thais the concept of "independence" of a working group) bringing together scientists and experts in law, legislation and political science working in the private sphere and as international consultants…
This implies the presence of incorruptible people who are specialized at the international level and not necessarily of Thai nationality…
Any individual currently active in the government or part of the Thai parliament, as well as anyone who has or has had, closely or remotely, in the family and/or professional sphere, any function whatsoever related to military or police activity, should be excluded from this working group on the reform of the Thai police.
It's far from being the case now, it's even completely the opposite! Corruption within Thailand's police force is just as well-organized and widespread as the mafia networks it's supposed to be fighting…
And as it's "self-protected" by its quasi-immunity status, it's likely, not to say certain, that nothing will change in the future…
The corrupt or corruptors won't put an end to their lucrative and illicit sources of profit themselves…
There's the police.
And in the army?
And in the TP?
And all state markets?
Question: Following this case (one of the most significant in recent years, which resulted in the death of a man) will the commission responsible for working on police reform (a commission largely composed of government members and former senior police officers!!!) and which has not made any progress in 10 years, finally make serious progress?
Answer: NO
Another question: Will the impact of this case in the media change the behavior of corrupt police officers at any level in the long term, and will we see a significant decrease in similar cases that come to light?
Answer: NO
Why: Simply because the 'Jo Ferrari' type of case is just the tip of the iceberg and represents only a tiny percentage of corruption, and will not affect the more discreet and secret cases, particularly those involving long-term corruption, almost 'institutions' within the state…
Simply, as the article says, the authors will show more caution…
What lost the police colonel 'Jo Ferrari', it wasn't corruption, it was his ego that made him believe that everything was allowed, including murdering while believing he had absolute impunity…
Rumors are being heard, implying that Jo Ferrari has been released and is living peacefully in his 60 million baht house…
Has anyone heard about this rumor?
Hello Hansson,
If it's true, it's another scandal on the horizon.