Chaowalit Thongduang, aka “Pang Nanode”, is to be flown back to Thailand from Indonesia on Tuesday, in a Royal Thai Air Force plane accompanied by Thai police.
Chaowalit escaped from a hospital in Nakhon Si Thammarat on October 22nd last year, while he was on trial at the Phatthalung provincial court on charges of attempting to kill a police officer. An extensive man hunt was launched, but police had failed to locate him, until it was disclosed last week that he had been arrested by Indonesian police in Bali, after he allegedly assaulted his Indonesian girlfriend.
Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong and a team of police officers and anti-narcotics officials flew to Indonesia yesterday, to discuss the deportation of Chaowalit and transnational narcotic smuggling problems.
Tawee thanked Indonesian officials for the arrest of Chaowalit, who is wanted by Thai police on multiple charges, including illegal narcotics trafficking.
Pol Lt-Gen Prachuap Wongsuk, acting deputy national police chief, said that, once Chaowalit arrives in Bangkok, he will be charged with escaping from custody, before being sent to a maximum security prison in Bangkok.
