The 29 year old Kim Roger Eriksson from Sweden was Friday shortly before noon informed of the charges against him by the criminal court in Bangkok and told that the judge had granted the police another 12 days to further investigate the charges against him. The Swedish national is accused of having set up a manufacturing laboratory to illegally produce the amphetamine drug “Ice” at his home in Rayong.
While the police investigates further, Kim Eriksson will be held in custody in Bangkok’s Klong Prem prison together with other criminal suspects. His next appearance in the court will be on the 27th of July, where the police will be granted another 12 days of custody. The maximum number of days a person can remain in custody before his case is heard in court is 84 days.
“I think we will need two months to finalize our investigations,” Police Lieutenant Colonel Wittaya Pliansamutr told ScandAsia. “After that, our material will be given to the Public Prosecutor who will write the formal indictment to be submitted to the court.”
Police Lieutenant Colonel Wittaya Pliansamutr shrugged off with a laugh the suggestion that Kim Eriksson could bribe the public prosecutor to leave out some of the evidence found by the police to make a weak case in court.
“This doesn’t happen in real life. It only happens in soap operas,” he said.
Kim Roger Eriksson arrived in a black police truck to the court chained to five other prisoners but dressed in his own civilian clothes. He was then led into the court room which was separated in two sections with a metal enforced glass wall down the middle. On the air-conditioned side of the glass wall was the judge sitting together with the policemen on benches below her. On the benches on the hot side of the wall the suspects were sitting.
When Kim Eriksson was called forward, he stepped up to a small window that was slided open and with the help of an interpreter he confirmed that he understood what he was accused of and acknowledged the twelve days additional custody.
He was then led out of the room to the public cages, where relatives can shout questions to the suspects behind bars with an open space of about three meters between them. Kim Eriksson’s wife Awatsada Sirawan had come to see him here for the first time since he was dramatically arrested on Wednesday night 14 July 2010 in the couple’s home in Klaeng around 30 km east of Rayong some 200 km south of Bangkok.
A preliminary result of the amount of “Ice” drug found under production in his lab showed according to Police Lieutenant Colonel Wittaya Pliansamutr that there was well over 1 liter of fluid “Ice” in the glass containers.
“Even if we say the drug was diluted to only 10 percent, that would still mean over 100 gram of pure ice which is quite a lot,” he added.
