THAILAND: SIX GIVEN DEATH SENTENCE FOR FAMILY MASSACRE

March 28, 2018:

Six men were sentenced to death for the massacre of a Thai village headman and seven members of his family, including three children, over a land dispute.
The execution-style murders, which caused widespread public horror, saw the masked gunmen storm into the local leader's compound in the southern province of Krabi in July 2017 and take his family hostage with handcuffs and blindfolds.
They held the group for several hours while waiting for village chief Worayuth Sanlang to return. Then they shot him in the head along with seven family members.
Three others were injured but survived, including a woman who played dead after a bullet passed through her ear.
The court said the massacre was motivated by a land dispute between the village headman and the lead gunman, Surikfat Bannopwongsakul.
"The six defendants used pistols to shoot all the eight victims, which included women as well as girls aged four, eight and 11, devastating the public," said the verdict read out at Krabi's provincial court on march 28.