Word: thailand
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...least that's how the story goes, according to the local Thai press and the old chargé d'affaires. Thailand's Department of Special Investigation (DSI), which is similar to the FBI, says it has no evidence to confirm the facts of the case - and doesn't even know whether the blue stone that's said to be larger than the Hope Diamond exists. What is certain is that the alleged theft eventually cost Thailand billions of dollars, left people dead in its wake and put an Elvis-impersonating Thai official on death row. More than 20 years later...
...January, five Thai police officers were arrested and charged for a murder that is allegedly connected to the case, raising hopes that some of the questions surrounding what has come to be known in Thailand as the Blue Diamond Affair would finally be answered. For Thailand, it could mean improved diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, potentially returning hundreds of thousands of jobs in the oil-rich nation to Thai migrant workers. But since Thailand's statute of limitations lapsed in February for murders allegedly linked to the heist, the Thais are running out of options. It will...
...After the 1989 jewel heist, the gardener, Kriangkrai Techamong, airmailed the loot to his home in northern Thailand and hightailed it back, according to reports in the local press. After the Saudi government gave Thailand the tip about Kriangkrai, it didn't take long for Thai police to arrest him, but not before he allegedly sold some of the priceless jewels for a mere $30 an item. Soon after, three Saudi diplomats in Bangkok were shot execution-style in two different attacks on the same night. Two days after that, a Saudi businessman was kidnapped and never seen again...
...that were awfully similar to the ones taken from the Saudi royalty. Needless to say, Saudi Arabia was not amused. In June 1990, the country would stop renewing the visas of more than a quarter-million Thai workers in Saudi Arabia and would give out no further ones, cutting Thailand off from billions of dollars in remittances. Saudi Arabia also barred its citizens from traveling to Thailand as tourists. Nabil Ashri, the current Saudi chargé d'affaires, said the decision to downgrade relations was "obviously for safety reasons and due to repeated failures of the Thai authorities to adequately...
...Under pressure from Saudi Arabia, Thailand continued to investigate the case, though maybe not in the way Saudi Arabia had hoped. In 1994, a Thai jeweler, whom Khoja believed was behind the imitation jewels, was kidnapped, and then his wife and 14-year-old son were killed. At the time, the Thai police said the two died in a car crash, but Khoja was not convinced. The Washington Post quoted him as saying, "The forensic commander thinks we're stupid. This was not an accident." (See the top 10 news stories...