On January 26, 2022, Thai Prime Minister and Defense Minister Prayuth held talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Mohammed Mohammed and agreed to restore normal diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Thailand. Now many people may be wondering, did Saudi Arabia and Thailand not have normal diplomacy before?
You may not know that there is a hostile relationship between the Saudi royal family and the Thai royal family. They have lived with each other for decades, and their relationship is almost unique among the roughly 30 royal families in existence in the world. All the hostility between these two powerful monarchies stemmed from the "Blue Diamond Incident" in the late 80s of the 20th century.
A Thai laborer stole a 50-carat royal Saudi blue diamond and brought it back to Thailand, arguing for more than 30 years. In a bizarre conspiracy that spilled from the royal family of the Middle East to a remote village in Thailand, culminating in the murder of three Saudi diplomats and the arrest of several senior Thai police officers, who ended up in the hands of the best blue diamond?
In the late 80s of the 20th century, Janklay, a Thai laborer working as a cleaner in the palace of Saudi Prince Faisal, set his sights on the prince's jewelry because of gambling debts. The Saudi prince is rich enough to rival the country, but his palace is not heavily secured. On the one hand, Saudi Arabia's internal security situation is relatively good. In addition, no one dares to steal the prince's things, and the punishment for theft in Saudi Arabia is very severe. Once caught, the hands are cut off, so few people commit theft. That's why Prince Faisar didn't bother to lock the four large safes where he collected his jewels, so that he could take them out at any time and play with them. Jiang Clay accidentally discovered this and used his brain.
Soon, his opportunity came. At the turn of spring and summer 1989, Prince Faisar and his wife went on a three-month holiday to Europe, meaning the stolen jewelry would not be discovered at first. Cornered by gambling debts, Jiangklei decided to do so, and he ended the day's cleaning work and quietly hid in a guest room on the first floor of the palace. He climbed through the window to the second floor at night, entered the prince's large bedroom, and opened the safe with only a screwdriver.
If Jiangklei is smart enough, he can get rich as long as he gets a piece of jewelry, and it is not easy to see. But he was obsessed and stole more than thirty kilograms of jewelry, as well as some cash, but none of it mattered, the only thing that mattered was that he took something he shouldn't, a fifty-carat blue diamond.
Looking at the whole world, the big blue diamond is a rare treasure. The "Star of the Sea" in the movie "Titanic" is based on the historical "Star of Hope", weighs 45.52 carats and is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and this blue diamond was once owned by King Louis XIV of France and Sultan Hamid of Turkey. However, Saudi blue diamonds are heavier than it, and their value can no longer be measured in money, but such priceless treasures have easily flowed into Thailand.
At that time, countries around the world did not have a strong sense of counter-terrorism, and international transport management was relaxed. Janklei packed the jewelry into three suitcases and sent it back to Thailand. He was well aware of the unspoken rules of Thai customs, and he placed an envelope containing cash and a note on the surface of his suitcase that read: "These boxes are sex toys, please turn a blind eye." In this way, Thai customs officials did not carry out the inspection. After confirming that the three boxes of jewelry had arrived safely in his hometown, Janklei also left Saudi Arabia. When the prince and his wife returned from vacation and found that the jewelry had been stolen, they immediately called the police. It was clear that the jewelry and Thai laborers disappeared at the same time, and police quickly identified the suspect, Jankley.
In January 1990, the Saudi royal family sent a note to Thailand informing it of the theft of the prince's residence and requesting Thailand's assistance in investigating and recovering the lost jewelry. The Thai side attaches great importance to this and has set up a special working group, which is under the responsibility of Lieutenant General Charlot. In fact, the case is easy to investigate, firstly, knowing the name of the suspect, and secondly, jewelry cannot be used as money, and the stolen goods must be stolen. With such heavyweight jewelry appearing on the market, the news is sure to spread, and only one person in Thailand dares to take over, and that is the big jeweler Sandy.
A few days later, Jiangklei was captured. Police dug up two boxes of unsold jewelry from deep in the forest, and most of the jewelry that was sold was also recovered. Subsequently, the Thai police held a press conference to put the found jewelry on public display and a return ceremony. The Blue Diamond incident seems to be solved successfully, but then things become weird. The Saudi royal family inspected the returned jewelry and found that half of it had been unpacked, some even glass forged, and the most precious blue diamond was not among them. The Saudi royal family, having lost face, issued the strongest condemnation to the Thai government and demanded that Thailand immediately return all the treasures, especially the blue diamond.
Under diplomatic pressure from Saudi Arabia, Thailand set up another commission of inquiry, but to no avail. In fact, Thailand's attitude towards the Blue Diamond incident has always been to accept criticism and not to investigate. Distrustful of Thailand, Saudi Arabia sent three diplomats and a jeweler named Luwaili to investigate. This businessman is most likely an agent. However, on 1 February 1990, three diplomats were shot dead in Bangkok. On 14 February, Luwaili disappeared and is presumed to have been killed. Thai police stressed that the diplomat's death had nothing to do with the Blue Diamond incident and promised to set up a special team to investigate the murder.
In 1994, Thailand claimed that the killing of Saudi diplomats was the work of a Thai gangster that was mainly engaged in the business of smuggling Thais into Saudi Arabia and retaliated by killing Saudi diplomats after the human smuggling business was blocked. However, in July of that year, the wife and son of Sandy, a Thai jeweler who had taken over Jankley's jewelry, died in a car accident. The medical examiner determined that the deceased was killed before the car accident. Immediately afterward, the head of the investigation team, Charlo, was arrested, and four of his subordinates accused him of kidnapping and killing Sandy's wife.
Charlo was sentenced to death in 2006, but Thailand's King Bhumibol pardoned him twice and was released in August 2015, while Jankle was extradited to Saudi Arabia and sentenced to five years in prison, after which he was pardoned by the Saudi royal family and released after serving two and a half years. He claimed to have been cursed by the missing Blue Diamond and eventually became a monk. The Blue Diamond incident has worsened relations between Saudi Arabia and Thailand, which stopped issuing work visas to Thais, withdrew all investments in Thailand and warned its nationals not to travel to Thailand. As a result, the Thai economy lost tens of billions of dollars.
Where did the stolen blue diamond go? Even people of Lieutenant General Charlo's level have become pawns and scapegoats, and who is the person who can make it impossible for the Thai government and the judicial system to investigate? The power of the people behind it can be seen. Some tabloids have pointed the finger at the Thai royal family because Queen Sirikit loves blue diamonds, but this is speculation, not real evidence. In any case, the destination of the rare blue diamond must be an extremely powerful family. It is said that the birth of the blue diamond will inevitably bring bad luck, but it is not known that inhuman greed and desire are the root of bad luck and disaster.