Still no sign of fugitive mayor

PHUKET: Almost a year after a warrant was issued for his arrest on charges of involvement in a murder, the former mayor of Patong, Dr Anan Ananthanawat, is still being sought by police. Pol Lt Col Paween Pongsirin, Deputy Superintendent of Investigation at Phuket Town Police Station, told the Gazette that a team of Provincial Special Duty Squad officers had been assigned to follow up on the case. He said that despite cooperation with police in Region 2 – which covers Chonburi, where Anan has a home and where he was last heard from – there is currently no sign of the fugitive mayor. “I believe he is still in Thailand because we also contacted the Immigration Police to inform them about the case, and to ask them not to allow him to leave the country,” said Lt Col Paween. In October last year, two men were arrested for robbing a company in Samut Prakan of 4 million baht, killing a security guard in the process. Checking records, police in Samut Prakan found that the two were also wanted in Phuket in connection with the murder of ex-Pol Sub Lt Weerapol Panrod, who was shot dead in broad daylight in Phuket Town in December 1998. In Phuket, the two men implicated another three in the murder, and all five identified Anan as being involved. Weerapol had allegedly worked for Anan as a bodyguard. In November last year, Anan contacted Lt Col Paween by phone and told him that he would come back to Phuket to answer questions as soon as he had finished his business in Chonburi. There has been no word from him since.