Bangkok Post :Lt Gen Manas Kongpaen, a key figure in the southern human-trafficking scandal, has been suspended from duty without pay under a Defence Ministry order issued last week, Deputy Defence Minister Udomdej Sitabutr said Thursday.Gen Udomdej, who is also army chief, said the order is in line with army regulations since Lt Gen Manas, a senior army specialist, has been arrested and charged with criminal offences.The suspension is to facilitate police investigation into the case.The army chief said Lt Gen Manas had been treated properly under legal procedures. He was accompanied by officers from the military’s Judge Advocate General’s Department while being investigated.The general would be reinstated and paid retroactively if he is found innocent, Gen Udomdej said.Lt Gen Manas has been charged with human trafficking, detaining victims of human trafficking, and holding victims of trafficking for ransom in connection with the smuggling of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants.
