Thai attorney general asks Korean prosecutors to probe death of ambassador’s wife

The Thai Attorney General has requested the Korean Prosecutor General’s cooperation in investigating the death of the Thai ambassador’s wife in a Korean hospital, the Thai Embassy in Seoul said Tuesday.

Dean of the diplomatic corps in Korea Vitali V. Fen has requested an independent enquiry into the death of Thitinart Satjipanon, the wife of Thai ambassador Chaiyong Satjipanon.

She died at Soonchunhyang Hospital in Seoul on Sept. 19 last year, after being admitted on Sept. 16 with abdominal pain.

The Thai ambassador said in November that he wished to take the hospital to court in both Korea and Thailand over the lack of assistance he alleges she received when she collapsed at the hospital. He has launched a criminal complaint accusing the hospital’s international clinic of medical malpractice and a lack of professionalism leading to the death of his wife.

Satjipanon first made the allegations on Sept. 22 to officials at Yongsan Police Station against Soonchunhyang Hospital director Dr. Shin Byeong-jun and International Health Care Clinic head Dr. Yoo Byung-wook and their staff.

The Thai Embassy said Tuesday: “The Attorney General, Central Authority of Thailand, has sent a letter to the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Korea to ask for the latter’s kind cooperation on the case.

“According to the Treaty between the Kingdom of Thailand and the Republic of Korea on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters, the two countries shall ‘grant each other the widest measure of mutual assistance in investigations, prosecutions or proceedings in respect of criminal matters.’”

The letter from the Thai Attorney General was dated Dec. 14 and was delivered to the Korean Prosecutor General shortly afterwards.

An official at Yongsan Police Station said Wednesday that police were still investigating the case and that it had not yet reached the prosecution. The spokesman for the Prosecutor General said they had not yet received the request.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade are also monitoring the police investigation, an embassy staff member said.

Soonchunhyang Hospital staff declined to comment on Wednesday, but a spokesperson previously maintained that staff had not been negligent, nor guilty of malpractice.

“The hospital staff feel very sorry for the loss of his wife but the hospital did everything it could do. We are now cooperating with the police investigation,” he had said in a previous statement.

Fen, who is also the Uzbek ambassador to Korea, declined to comment on the case.

By Kirsty Taylor (kirstyt@heraldcorp.com)