BANGKOK (Reuters) – A Thai court has issued arrest warrants for 17 people including a high-profile construction tycoon, police said on Thursday, over their alleged involvement in the building of a skyscraper that collapsed and killed scores of workers during a powerful March earthquake.
Search teams recovered 89 bodies in a six-week operation in the rubble of the partially constructed 30-storey State Audit Office tower in the capital Bangkok, which was the only skyscraper to collapse during tremors caused by a massive 7.7 magnitude quake in neighbouring Myanmar.
The charges included building code violations that caused deaths, carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, said deputy Bangkok police chief, Police Major General Somkuan Puengsap.
Thai authorities are investigating the cause of the building collapse and have yet to release findings. It was one of the deadliest accidents of its kind in Thailand and seven people are still missing.
An anti-corruption watchdog has said it had flagged to authorities irregularities in the construction of the skyscraper before it collapsed, while industry officials said initial tests of materials at the site indicated the presence of substandard steel.
Those charged include executives and engineers from seven companies involved in the design, construction and building supervision of the collapsed tower, police said, without providing more details.
Police named only one of the 17 wanted individuals, Premchai Karnasuta, a former president of Thailand’s largest construction company Italian Thai Development Pcl.
Italian Thai Development has held meetings with investors and has said it was cooperating with the probe.
Premchai could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
He was convicted and sentenced to more than three years in jail term in 2021 for poaching protected species after he was caught by rangers at a jungle campsite in a wildlife sanctuary with carcasses of protected animals, including a black Indochinese leopard.
(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by Martin Petty)
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