Phuket defense volunteer fined B500 for pistol-whipping tourist

Patong Police charged Amnard with assault and carrying a gun in public after an altercation with Fahad Al Mutariy, 57, in Patong on Sept 9. (See story here.)

Amnard, a part-time Territorial Defense Volunteer for Kathu District, was found carrying a .38 Taurus revolver and 18 bullets on the Patong beach road when he was taken into custody.

Phuket Provincial Court on September 14 handed down a B1,000 fine and sentenced Amnard to one-year imprisonment for the assault.

“But as the defendant confessed and entered a plea of guilty, the court halved his fine and suspended his prison sentence,” a source at the court told The Phuket News yesterday (Oct 20).

The maximum penalty for assault is two years imprisonment, a B2,000 fine, or both.

Kathu District chief Sayan Chanachaiwong dismissed Amnard from his duty as a part-time Kathu Territorial Defense Volunteer immediately after the incident.

“He was only a part-time volunteer at that time and he is no longer in that position already,” Chief Sayan said. “We revoked his volunteer’s identification card and his permit to carry a gun in public while on duty.

“He also no longer has that gun. Police seized it and sent it to the forensic department for investigation,” he added.

Police have yet to formally charge Amnard for carrying a gun in public, Kathu Police Inspector Maj Col Theerasak Boonsang told The Phuket News.

“We are having a ballistics check done in case the gun has been used to commit another crime,” he said. “We have to wait about one more month for the forensic test results.”

Phuket News