A Thai construction tycoon and 14 other suspects turned themselves in to police on Friday after warrants were issued for their arrest in connection with the collapse of an uncompleted building during an earthquake in late March.
Premchai Karnasuta, 71, the president of Italian Thai Development (ITD), one of Thailand’s largest construction companies, was the most prominent of the group, which also included structural engineers, project managers, and others involved in the building’s design and construction.
In a press conference on Friday, Noppasin Poonsawat, the deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, confirmed that the suspects had surrendered to police, and would be charged with breaching building regulations and professional negligence causing death under sections 227 and 238 of the Thai Criminal Code.
“Expert assessments revealed that the architectural design did not comply with ministerial regulations or meet the technical standards outlined in the terms of reference,” Noppasin said, as per Reuters.
The 30-floor State Audit Office building in Bangkok’s Chatuchak district collapsed when an earthquake hit central Myanmar on March 28, killing 92 construction workers, most of them migrant laborers from Myanmar and Cambodia, and injuring nine people. Five more remain missing, and many of the victims remained trapped under the rubble for weeks.
The building was being constructed under a joint venture between ITD and China Railway No. 10 (Thailand), a subsidiary of the state-owned China Railway Engineering Corporation. The fact that it was the only major structure to collapse in Bangkok, more than 1,000 kilometers from the epicenter of the earthquake, prompted an immediate investigation.
Attention came to rest on the steel bars used in the building’s construction, some of which were tested by the Ministry of Industry and found to be of substandard quality. As the Bangkok Post reported, the police investigation subsequently concluded that “the building’s design violated safety standards, with structural flaws in the core lift shaft and substandard concrete and steel.”
The suspects turned themselves in a day after the Criminal Court in Bangkok issued arrest warrants for 17 people, including Premchai, over the collapse of the building. A Thai court later denied all 15 suspects bail, citing the possible flight risk, and ordered them transferred to Bangkok Remand Prison. Noppasin said that all of the suspects had denied the charges, and that the final two suspects were due to turn themselves in today.
The building’s problems had been on the government’s radar for some time. Mana Nimitmongkol, president of the Anti-Corruption Organization of Thailand (ACOT), which reviews government projects, told Reuters shortly after the disaster that it had informed the State Audit Office about its concerns regarding the project prior to the earthquake. Mana said that visits to the project during construction by ACOT had raised concerns about delays, worker shortages, and possible “corner-cutting,” adding that the government had threatened to cancel the project in January due to delays.