Bangkok, Thailand
Reuters
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A Thai court issued a warrant for 17 people, including the famous construction giant, police said Thursday about alleged involvement in the construction of a skyscraper that collapsed and killed workers during the powerful March earthquake.
The search team recovered 89 bodies in six weeks of operation at the tile ble at the 30-storey state audit office tower, partially built in Bangkok, the capital.
The charges include a building code violation that caused the death and were sentenced to the maximum life sentence, Deputy Director of Police, Bangkok, General General of Police, said Major General Samkang Puensap.
Thai authorities have investigated the cause of the building’s collapse and have not yet released the findings. It was one of Thailand’s most fatal accidents, with seven people still missing.
Anti-corruption Watchdog said it flagged the authorities’ irregularities in the construction of the skyscraper before it collapsed, but industry officials said initial testing of the site’s materials indicated the presence of standardized steel.
The person charged includes executives and engineers from seven companies involved in designing, building and overseeing the collapsed tower, police said they would not provide details.
Police have appointed Premchai Karnasuta, one of the 17 wanted people.
The Italian Thailand development has held meetings with investors and said it is working with the probe.
It could not be reached for comment Thursday.
He was convicted and sentenced to more than three years in a poaching species in 2021 after being caught by a ranger at a jungle campsite in a wildlife sanctuary that contains the corpses of a sheltered animal, including a black indocinium leopard.
