Taipei prosecutors question man after fugitive gunned down in Thailand

Taipei, Feb. 27 (CNA) Taipei prosecutors said Tuesday they are questioning a man over the killing of fugitive Shih Mou-chiang (石茂強), whose bullet-riddled body was found in an abandoned Bangkok house on Feb. 25.

The Taipei District Prosecutors Office said that a man in his 20s surnamed Chou (周) was brought in for questioning after returning to Taiwan on Monday.

Shih, a 44-year-old Taiwanese national on the run since 2022, was found with three gunshots to the head in an abandoned building near Suvarnabhumi Airport by a janitor.

According to Thai police, a pair of gloves and 500 grams of ketamine were near Shih's body.

A report in the English-language Bangkok Post claimed that three Taiwanese nationals took a taxi to the rented residence of a woman believed to be Shih's girlfriend at 3:12 a.m. on Feb. 25, not long after arriving in Thailand.

Gunshots were heard and the suspects left at 4:51 a.m. in a red Mazda van, the report said.

Citing surveillance images, Napatpong Supaporn, immigration chief in Thailand's Sa Kaeo province, said the suspects arrived in Sa Kaeo in a red Mazda van about 4 p.m. on Feb. 25 before crossing the border to Poipet in Cambodia at 6 p.m. the same day, when there was no warrant out for their arrest, the report added.

The gang left for Phnom Penh later around 9 p.m., and Thai police are still waiting for Cambodian officials to check whether they have left the country, the report said.

A 23-year-old woman, Priyanuch Thammarat, the owner of the van, has been picked up in Cambodia and will be deported, Thai police said.

Neighbors said Thammarat was thought to be Shih's girlfriend and that many young Thai and Chinese frequented her rented residence for parties in luxurious cars, according to Thai media reports.

The whereabouts of the three other suspects is unknown as of press time.

According to Lee Kun-ta (李昆達) of Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau, Shih failed to report to prison in 2022 and authorities have no record of when he left Taiwan as he did so illegally.