Questions have emerged about a widely read account of misconduct by Bangkok police published online by Time Magazine last week.

The harrowing, first-hand story written by Ian Lloyd Neubauer reports a damning account of police misconduct said to have happened at “a terrace bar in the Silom Road area” that is at odds with information and records provided by the police.

“It was Christmas Eve and I was at the upstairs area of a terrace bar in the Silom Road area having a late-night drink,” Neubauer wrote in Time’s article published Jan. 20. “At around 2 a.m. I called it a night and descended to the ground floor. There I saw half a dozen police officers searching the premises and interrogating the bartender, who was handcuffed on a chair.”

However inquiries with the police department responsible for that area insisted no such incident occurred Dec. 25 or around that date. Meanwhile, officers at a different police station in another neighborhood confirmed Neubauer was among five foreigners they said were detained on suspicion of drug use several kilometers away in the Sathon district at a restaurant known for selling drugs to its clients.

Far from random acts of abusive “tormentors” described, officers said they were doing good police work – acting on a tip which led them to seize a significant amount of drugs, and detaining people for which they had probable cause to do so.

“We did detain them and gave them a drug test for amphetamines,” said Police Lt. Somjit In-thilat, who that night was the watch commander at the Thung Maha Mek Police Station.

Numerous attempts over several days were made to reach Neubauer for comment. A reporter who sent messages via Facebook and Twitter found his account blocked soon thereafter. Messages were sent to Time staff including its Hong Kong-based editor for Asia and another reporter, but no reply was received.

On Christmas Eve, Somjit said his department received an anonymous call in Thai that drugs were being sold at La Cuchara, a bar located on Soi Sri Bumpen in the capital’s Sathorn district.

La Cuchara, which means “the scoop,” is located across the street from all-nighter bar Wong’s and has a reputation for readily selling cocaine. Somjit said he led a team of officers to search the place and found 300 grams of cocaine on the premises. They arrested the Thai woman owner and a male Thai staff member who are now in jail awaiting trial on drug charges.

They also detained five foreign customers they believed were doing drugs on the premises. Somjit said they were eventually taken to the Thung Maha Mek police station for drug testing on Soi Suan Phlu where they were held from about 5am to 6am.

“Some time after dawn we were presented with a typed document – in Thai – and told to sign it. At this, I drew a line and demanded to speak with the Australian embassy,” Neubauer wrote. “Only then did our tormentors back down, casually informing us we’d all passed our drug tests and would be released – if only we signed on the dotted line. I did so, but I also scribbled, ‘This is not my signature’ on the document before walking back onto the steamy streets of Bangkok at 8 a.m. on Christmas Day, traumatized but elated to be free.

Somjit said their urine tests were sent to Khlong Tan Hospital to check for methamphetamines, and the five were released when the results returned negative. They were not tested for cocaine, he said, because Khlong Ton hospital can only test for amphetamines.

When reporters visited the Thung Maha Mek station on Monday, it took some time for police to locate who was in charge the night of Dec. 24. On Somjit’s phone remained photos from the raid, showing the five suspects, including Neubauer. After some discussion he also showed a report from that night where Neubauer’s name was printed next to his signature. The signature Somjit showed did not include a message reading “This is not my signature” as Neubauer reported.

Neubauer’s story appeared to fit a pattern of reported harassment that surged about two months ago, mostly in the Thonglor area. Those accounts had subsided by mid-December after media reports caused some embarrassment and police officials both denied it was happening while also signaling they would put an end to it.

However Neubauer’s one-sided account quotes only reliably anti-junta critics to frame a troubling incident substantiated only by the author’s account, without any witnesses or other sources to confirm.

Among the account are assertions the police were physically abusive, which Lt. Somjit denied. Asked whether officers kicked a bartender “in the shins” who objected to them raiding the bar’s alcohol as alleged in Neubauer’s story, Somjit and another officer present during the raid shook their heads and laughed.

He added that no attempts were made to secure bribes.

“We don’t have proficiency [in English],” he said. “We don’t even understand the language.”

Additional reporting by Prae Sakaowan. Image: Screenshot from Time.com

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