Saudi Arabia and Thailand have a bad relationship, and perhaps many people have heard a little about it. The Saudi government does not encourage its people to visit the country or welcome Thais into the country, citing the Blue Diamond Affair that dates back three decades.
It all started one night in 1989. Kriangkrai Techamong, a Thai who worked as a cleaner in the Saudi palace, sneaked into Prince Faisal bin Fahd's bedroom in the middle of the night and stole about $20 million worth of jewelry from a safe. Among the jewels were a 50-carat blue diamond, a $2 million sapphire necklace, a rare emerald necklace, gold watches, an "egg-sized ruby" (according to The Washington Post), and many others.
While the exact details of the theft were never revealed, it is claimed that Kriangkrai hid the jewels in vacuum cleaner bags and sent them back to his hometown in Lampang Province, Thailand.
Soon after, the Royal Thai Police was appointed to investigate the matter. A team led by Chalor Kerdthes soon discovered that Kriangkrai had committed the crime, and after arresting him, returned the stolen jewels to the Saudi royal family.
Jewelry recovered by Thai police
However, the Saudi royal family found that only half of the jewelry that was stolen was returned, the most precious blue diamonds were missing, and even more outrageously, 80% of the returned jewelry was fake. They began to realize that it was a ruse – most of the jewels were replaced by worthless forgeries, and almost at the same time, the so-called "new jewelry" worn by the wives of high-ranking Thai officials at charity events looked exactly like the prince's original jewelry!
The Saudis were furious, and they had identified it as a "stolen goods" between Thai police and senior officials. In response to such a brazen insult from Thailand, Saudi Arabia decided to send several "emissaries" to Thailand to try to find relevant clues.
The result was a lot of pain for the Saudi government – on January 4, 1989, a Saudi diplomat was murdered in Si Lom in Bang Bang Rak district of Bangkok; On February 1, 1990, three more Saudi diplomats were murdered in Thung Mahamek, Yan Nawa district of Bangkok. On February 12, 1990, Saudi Arabian businessman Mohammad al-Ruwaili went to Bangkok to investigate but disappeared and was later presumed murdered.
In the face of these cases, the Thai government has not even done much to help the Saudis.
It wasn't until 1994 that Thai jeweler Santhi was identified as a witness in the theft and was kidnapped for three days. That same year, Santhi's wife and son were found dead in the car. The following year, it was confessed that Chelor was the one who ordered Santhi's wife and children to be killed. Thailand's Supreme Court sentenced Cilor to death, but on King Bhumibol's 84th birthday, the sentence was commuted to 50 years in prison.
A series of unresolved incidents have made Saudi Arabia so upset that it simply stopped issuing work visas to Thai workers. Gradually, the number of Thai workers working in Saudi Arabia fell from 200,000 in 1989 to 10,000 in 2008.
Chelor was arrested
Kriangkrai Techamong, the culprit of the theft, was sentenced to seven years in prison but was released after only three years because he confessed to the theft and behaved well. On March 17, 2016, Kriangkrai, then 65, told reporters that he would spend the rest of his life as a monk to repent of his dishonest behavior. Kriangkrai also said that he believed that the missing blue diamond contained a curse, and that it was the theft of the blue diamond that brought a series of disasters to himself and his family.
Kriangkrai was interviewed by reporters
To date, some jewelry, including blue diamonds, remains unaccounted for. Many mysteries of the Blue Diamond Incident remain unsolved.