DPA/Bangkok

Saudi Arabia has expressed regrets over the promotion of a Thai police officer indicted this year for his alleged role in the murder of a Saudi businessman, media reports said yesterday.

The Saudi embassy in Bangkok said in a statement released on Friday night that it was concerned to learn of the promotion of Somkid Boonthanom to the post of assistant national police chief, effective October 1, “in a manner that may affect the course of legal proceedings against the defendants,” the Bangkok Post reported.

The embassy warned that the development could jeopardise bilateral relations.

The first hearing in Somkid’s case is scheduled for November 25.

Thailand’s attorney general in January indicted five serving and former police officers, including Somkid, in the murder of a Saudi businessman allegedly linked to the theft of a Saudi prince’s 50-carat blue diamond and other jewellery.

The five officers were charged with involvement in the murder of Mohamed al-Ruwaili, who went missing in Bangkok in 1990.

Thailand’s diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia have been poor for the past two decades because of successive governments’ failure to solve the al-Ruwaili case and the murders of three Saudi diplomats.

The Saudis are also awaiting the return of millions of dollars of jewellery stolen from the home of Prince Faisal bin Abdul Ra-ish in Riyadh in 1989, including the blue diamond.

From June to August 1989, Thai janitor Kriangkrai Techamong stole an estimated 502mn baht ($15mn) of jewellery from the prince’s Riyadh palace and managed to post it to Thailand before returning home himself. The theft prompted a Saudi investigation in Bangkok that has been linked to the slaying of the three diplomats and the disappearance of al-Ruwaili from 1989 to 1990.

Thai police arrested Kriangkrai, who confessed to the thefts and went to prison. Thai authorities retrieved much of the stolen jewellery, but when it was returned to Saudi Arabia, many of the items proved to be imitations, including the blue diamond.

Thai Police Lieutenant General Chalor Kerdthes, who was originally in charge of the investigation, has been sentenced to death for abducting and murdering the wife and son of a Thai jewellery dealer allegedly involved in the case.