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Erawan Verdict A Decade Late
Bangkok South Criminal Court sentenced Yusufu Mieraili and Bilal Mohammed to death on Thursday for the August 2015 Erawan Shrine bombing, closing a trial that outlasted a military government, a pandemic, and a transfer between court systems. The two Chinese nationals were convicted on what the four-judge panel said was “overwhelming” evidence, including video footage and fingerprints, and ordered to pay more than a million baht (~$30k) for property damage on top of the capital sentence. Mieraili, who learned Thai in prison and was asked Thursday to translate the proceedings into Uyghur for Bilal because only an English interpreter was on hand, told the courtroom, "RIP Thailand's justice system. I didn't do anything wrong." Defense lawyers plan to appeal within a month, arguing several aspects of the case went unexamined, including torture allegations that the judges dismissed for lack of evidence. Of the 17 suspects named in 2015, only three were ever caught, and charges against a Thai woman were dropped in 2024. Human Rights Watch's senior Thailand advisor said the investigation was "shoddy" and that important questions about the networks behind the attack remain unanswered.
Read more: Bangkok Post (deportation backdrop), Thestar (due process criticism), Independent (defendants' ages), Chinadailyasia (China's statement)
BKK Funds Narrative, Phnom Penh Takes Tanks
China's delivery of T-59D tanks to Cambodia received a studied shrug from Bangkok. Prime Minister Anutin said the matter was no direct concern of Thailand's; Defense Minister Lt Gen Adul said the tanks were refurbished older models under a cooperation arrangement that has included joint exercises since 2016, and said intelligence confirmed they'd arrived at a Cambodian port but hadn't been moved toward the border. The calm response is probably helpful. On June 5, Thailand agreed to join the UN compulsory conciliation process under UNCLOS to settle the two countries' maritime boundary, a bit of water sitting on an estimated $300 billion of energy resources. At the same time, Bangkok put land border talks on hold, a pressure-reducing off-ramp from negotiations it had been slow-walking for months. The government also reportedly approved 9.8 million baht (~$300k) for a Thai-Cambodian Joint Information Coordination Center, set up in January to push Bangkok's version of the border story to the international media.
Read more: Bangkok Post (Thai minister quotes), Bangkok Post (JIC budget), Foreign Policy (maritime arbitration)
Thai Inc. Tells Gov’t the Japanese Aren't Returning
Boonsithi Chokwatana, chairman of Saha Group, said that Japanese investment is slowing, Chinese money is filling the gap, and the Chinese are buying land by the hundreds of rai at a time rather than the 10-20 rai a Japanese firm might take. The same day, the JSCCIB put the heat on the government to move faster on courting multinationals looking to relocate manufacturing, pointing to 18.9% export growth in the first four months of the year, with almost half of that driven by AI and data center investment. The backdrop is a World Bank growth expectation of only 1.6% for Thailand in 2026, compared to 6.8% for Vietnam.
Read more: Bangkok Post (Boonsithi), Bangkok Post (JSCCIB forecast upgrade)
Anutin's Rural Base Checks the Bill
Diesel up more than 60% at its peak, fertilizer costs up more than 30%, and rice prices are still moving south. The Iran war's tax on fuel and fertilizer has landed on farmers like Chaon Taiupok, a 69-year-old rice grower in Ayutthaya who says the politicians who came courting before February's election disappeared as soon as the polls were closed. A May Suan Dusit University poll found 57% of respondents had little or no confidence in the Anutin government, a backpedalling from March when 68% said that they were optimistic. Nearly four-fifths want urgent action on the cost of living, but with household debt at 86.7% of GDP and inflation looking like it’s going to breach the central bank's 1-3% target, fiscal room to maneuver is thin. The government's 176-billion-baht consumer subsidy program, part of a 400-billion-baht borrowing decree that’s getting an opposition legal challenge, will offer rice farmers a little bit of breathing room, but it’s unlikely to be anywhere close to enough to make a real difference; Pramote Charoensilp, president of the Thai Agriculturalists Association, says it won’t cover the bills.
Read more: Bangkok Post
Baht Blinks, BOT Doesn't
The SET is trading at 16x earnings with per-share profits capped near 95 baht for a decade and GDP growth expected to remain below 2%, a result that appears to be forcing Kasikorn Asset Management to tell clients the rally’s already priced in the good news. The Bank of Thailand sees no need for an emergency MPC meeting despite the baht falling 5.4% since the U.S.-Iran conflict started, saying that reserves are still healthy and foreign outflows are manageable at only $1.3 billion. In contrast, Indonesia hiked 25 basis points in an emergency session and is expected to hike again next week.
Read more: Bangkok Post (K-Asset dividends), FX Street (BOT spokesperson quotes)
Gulf Bets $12 Billion on Becoming Server Farmer
Gulf Development is expected to build out 2,000MW of data center capacity within three to five years, starting with 100MW this year with a five-year capex plan of 130-140 billion baht. That’s about 10% of what it’s set aside for digital infrastructure overall. The 100MW flagship will be erected in Rayong, a 38MW site is under construction in Chon Buri (expected mid-2027), and a 25MW joint venture with Singtel and AIS in Samut Prakan is already running Thailand's first liquid-cooled setup for AI chips. At Gulf's estimate of $6-7 million per MW, the full 2,000MW build-out implies a cost of about of $12 billion. Chief strategy officer Smith Banomyong is also trying to get regulators to create data center rules similar to those already found in Singapore and South Korea.
Read more: Bangkok Post
Seoul's Spooks Raid Bangkok's Medicine Cabinet
South Korean intelligence agents joined Thai forces to hit 10 warehouses in and around Bangkok on June 9. They hauled out 49.98 tons of acetone, hydrochloric acid, and other precursor chemicals the NIS claims could have yielded 700 million doses of a variety of drugs that could have been worth $5.6 billion on the street. It was the first time a Korean government agency has directly worked a foreign drug production site, a move that came in the wake of Seoul's April detention of “Thapanan,” a kingpin accused of controlling more than half the narcotics circulating in the country and sitting on about 50 outstanding arrest warrants accumulated over the past decade. More than 100 military, police, and anti-drug personnel took part along with NIS specialists and dismantled what the agency called a supply hub that fed not only Korea but markets across Asia.
Read more: VietnamPlus
Land Bridge to Nowhere Gets Another 90 Days
Anutin Charnvirakul's cabinet has ordered a new 90-day review of the Chumphon-Ranong Land Bridge (results due August 10). The project, with a price tag of an estimated Bt997 billion, would cut a shipping corridor across the peninsula to connect the Gulf of Thailand with the Andaman Sea. Three prior feasibility studies have already come and gone. Foreign capital committed to date is zero.
Read more: Asia Sentinel
World Cup Deal Lands at Kickoff
In a last minute score, JAS chief executive Soraj Asavaprapha confirmed the deal on June 11, the same day the tournament kicked off in Mexico City, after weeks of talks that stalled over FIFA's reported $40 million asking price for Thai rights. The final package covers two World Cups and all FIFA events through 2030 in a $70 million deal. Vietnam reportedly paid about $15 million for its rights, and JAS had reportedly been pushing for something close to that figure. The 2022 tournament ended the same way, with a last-minute $33 million scramble funded by regulators and True Corp.
Read more: CNA, Asian News Network (ASEAN holdout)
ISOC Gets the Bill for Smear Campaign
The Court of Appeal ordered ISOC on Thursday to pay 210,000 baht to activists Angkhana Neelapaijit (wife of “disappeared” lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit) and Anchana Heemmina and scrub offending online content within seven days, closing a case over Pulony.com, a website that published untrue information that connected the two women to national security threats. The court found ISOC liable with the reasoning that it had authority to control and supervise the site, a principle that extends state liability to any agency overseeing a channel used to spread damaging content. Angkhana, who received 120,000 baht to Anchana's 90,000, said it was an important precedent for human rights protection. The court accepted that the operation, the kind of thing now politely called an "information operation", was carried out by people connected to ISOC Region 4 Forward Command.
Read more: Bangkok Post
A Line Message in Bhumjaithai Blue
People's Party MP Pakhamon Nunanant has called on Department of Provincial Administration chief Narucha Khosasivilai to explain a Line message reportedly reading "Please help Blue," a phrase that critics claim was as a nudge toward Bhumjaithai during a recent election campaign. The leak came from former Phuket assistant governor Roongruang Thimabut, who says he was transferred unfairly soon after. He has filed complaints with the NACC and Election Commission, accusing Narucha of breaching political neutrality and possibly violating Section 172 of the anti-corruption law. The department is under the Interior Ministry, currently run directly by the PM.
Read more: Bangkok Post
People's Lawyer Discovers People's Prison
The Criminal Court sentenced Sittra "Lawyer Tum" Biabungkerd to six years without suspension on Thursday, putting a fork in a case that began when police pulled him over in his Porsche Cayenne on the Kabin Buri-Chachoengsao Highway in late 2024, apparently mid-flight. His accuser is Jatuporn Ubonlert, a EuroMillions winner based in France who says Sittra talked her into 71 million baht for an online lottery investment, 13 million for a Mercedes-Benz, and 39 million in bitcoin to hire a Chinese artist (!?). Sittra's defense was that the money was given voluntarily, out of affection (!?). The court gave him four and a half years for fraud plus another 18 months for offenses under the Computer Crime Act, in addition to telling him to repay 72.5 million baht with 5% annual interest. He's out on 1 million baht bail pending appeal, barred from leaving the country.
Read more: Bangkok Post
That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.
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