Article 90

Pornthip silent on death threat

POST REPORTERS

Khunying Pornthip Rojanasunan, deputy director of the Central Institute of Forensics Science, returned to Bangkok yesterday from the South where she is said to have received a death threat.

Reports said Muslim militants had offered a one-million-baht reward for her life. But Khunying Pornthip refused to comment, saying she had told her supervisors at the Justice Ministry.

She and her staff from the CIFS had been in the three troubled provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat helping the military and police collect evidence from recent violent incidents.

Justice Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana said he had not heard about any threat on Khunying Pornthip's life, but had told ministry staff to be careful while working in the region.

''I don't know where news [of the death threat] came from and how much weight it carries,'' said Mr Pongthep.

''We have to check. But we should also prevent it [from happening] first.''

Khunying Pornthip and her forensic team normally stayed in a military camp and were protected wherever they went. He had told Khunying Pornthip to handle only big cases and leave small cases to her staff.

Earlier, Khunying Pornthip called justice permanent secretary Manit Suthaporn, who oversees the Cenral Institute of Forensics Science, and told him that people had offered a one-million-baht reward for her life.

Pol Gen Boonpen Bampenboon, assistant national police chief in charge of police operations in the southern border provinces, said he also knew nothing of the report.