The Criminal Court has approved the detention of the man arrested during Friday’s raid on a massage parlour in Bangkok.
Boonsap Amornratanasiri, 55, who allegedly worked as the chief supervisor of the women, was taken into custody when police raided Victoria Secret massage parlour on suspicions of human trafficking.
He faced five charges related to trafficking girls under 15 for prostitution and Department of Investigation officials sought to detain him pending testimonies of 22 more witnesses.
His relatives put up 500,000 baht in cash as surety for bail but the court turned down the bail request, citing the heavy punishments and the fact that the offences were allegedly committed against children.
Mr Boonsap was detained at the Bangkok Remand Prison.
According to the detention request, from July 2014 to May 2016 Nan Lutt, a Myanmar woman, and Somchai Mongkolvarapaiboon, her Thai husband, persuaded girls of the Shan minority group in Myanmar who were not yet 15 at the time to cross the borders to Thailand. They were then brought to stay at an apartment in Bangkok.
The girls later became sex workers at the massage parlour on Soi Soonvijai 4, Rama IX Road, Huai Khwang district.
Customers would pay the cashier before getting the service and the couple received money every month at the den. The suspect reportedly managed the overall operation and talked to police when problems occurred.
On May 5, 2006, the couple sent the girls to work as sex workers in Malaysia but they could not continue working there and asked to return to Thailand.
Last week, their relatives repaid 90,000 baht for the debts the girls owed them and contacted social workers to take the girls to a rehabilitation centre in Nonthaburi.
Mr Boonsap was charged with seeking illegitimate gains from prostitution by procuring, detaining or accepting girls under 15, collaborating with human trafficking, harbouring illegal migrants and participating in international crime.
Mr Boonsap denied all the charges.
