High-profile fugitive Chaowalit Thongduang, aka “Sia Pang Nanode”, who escaped from a hospital in Nakhon Si Thammarat, has been apprehended in Indonesia, said Thai PM Srettha Thavisin, citing a report from the Justice minister.
Writing on his X account, Srettha stated Thai police, as well as the ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs, will cooperate with Indonesia on the matter.
Chaowalit, 37, was catapulted into the media spotlight when absconded from a state-run hospital, after being transferred there from prison in October last year.
He had initially sought dental treatment, but was admitted to hospital after appearing to collapse.
Instead of being transported back to Nakhon Si Thammarat Prison, his shackles were removed and he simply walked out of the hospital, without being challenged.
A manhunt, involving hundreds of police officers, scoured the Banthad mountains, spanning the southern provinces of Phatthalung, Trang and Satun, where Chaowalit was believed to be hiding.
They finally traced him to a mountain hideout in Trang on November 8th, but he escaped after a gun battle with police.
Six weeks after he snuck out of the hospital, Thailand’s most-wanted man was still on the run, and taunting authorities in the process.
Sources say more than 10 million baht in taxpayers’ money has already been spent on trying to recapture the “dangerous outlaw”, but to no avail.
Chaowalit recently posted several clips, complaining about his “unfair treatment” at the hands of the Thai justice system. He claimed that the court was wrong to sentence him to such a long prison term, since his crime was one of “compassion”.
“I intended to go there and help a man. If someone else did that, he would have been considered a hero. So, why am I being labelled a bad guy?” he snapped in one video clip.
Chaowalit was sentenced to 20 years and six months for attempting to free his friend, Sittidej Songdecha, from police detention in Phatthalung in 2019.
He claimed that he did not know Sittidej was being held by police at the time, as the man’s father and a public prosecutor had led him to believe that Sittidej had been kidnapped by a drug-trafficking gang.
Main photo : This photo, taken from a video clip, shows Chaowalit Thongduang, also known as Sia Pang Nanode, in the custody of Indonesian police.
