Visa overstayer alleges extortion of Bt600,000

A Syrian man has filed a complaint with the Justice Ministry, alleging that a group of foreigners and Lumpini police had extorted money from him.

Alhalabee Yasser met Pol Colonel Dusadee Arayawut, deputy permanent secretary for justice, to complain that a group of men demanded more than Bt600,000 in exchange for not prosecuting him for overstaying his visa, and to obtain the freedom of his son who had been detained by immigration police.

Yasser said he had been living in Thailand for four years due to the war that had engulfed his country.

He runs a barber shop in Soi Nana and was forced to pay Bt15,000 a month to a group of three foreigners from Syria, Egypt and Lebanon who claimed that they were Lumpini police volunteers. They told him the payment would protect him and his son from legal action.

However in June, Yasser alleged, Lumpini police arrested his son and detained him at an immigration jail. The group then demanded money for the release of his son, so Yasser paid them several times to a total of about Bt600,000.

However his son remained in jail, so he came to seek justice with awareness that he could be prosecuted for overstaying.

Dusadee said that he would ask the police department to examine the claims and would forward the case to the Office of the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission for further investigation as the claim involved police officers.

The Nation