World

Thai prosecutors press charges against more than 100 suspects in human trafficking scandal

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Office of the Attorney General spokesman Wanchai Roujanavong talks to reporters during a press conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, July 24, 2015. Thailand's state prosecutors recommended charges against more than 100 people, including a Thai army general, in a multinational human trafficking scandal that came to light after dozens of bodies were discovered in the country's south earlier this year, a spokesman said Friday. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit) (The Associated Press)

Office of the Attorney General spokesman Wanchai Roujanavong talks to reporters during a press conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, July 24, 2015. Thailand's state prosecutors recommended charges against more than 100 people, including a Thai army general, in a multinational human trafficking scandal that came to light after dozens of bodies were discovered in the country's south earlier this year, a spokesman said Friday. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit) (The Associated Press)

Thailand's state prosecutors have recommended charges against more than 100 people, including a Thai army general, in a multinational human trafficking scandal after dozens of bodies were discovered earlier this year.

Office of the Attorney General spokesman Wanchai Roujanavong said Friday that 91 Thais, nine Myanmar nationals and four Bangladeshis face multiple charges, including, human trafficking, partaking in a transnational crime network, and assisting or bringing in aliens into the kingdom illegally.

He said provincial prosecutors have pressed charges against 72 arrested suspects and were waiting to proceed with 32 others who remained at large.

The sweeping investigation, in which 15 Thai state officials were implicated, came after 33 bodies, believed to be migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, were exhumed from various jungle camps near the Thai-Malaysian border in May.