Immunity for Thai senator who shot ex-wife

BANGKOK (AFP) - Thailand's Senate on Monday voted to deny a request by the police to question one of its members who shot his ex-wife at the dinner table with an Uzi 9mm pistol.

Upper house lawmakers voted 94-2 to uphold Mr Boonsong Kowawisarat's Constitutional right to immunity during the parliamentary session.

"After the session ends on November 28 police can take him for questioning," Senator Somchai Sawaengkarn told AFP. "A senator should do his job during a parliamentary session."

Mr Boonsong has said the death was an accident caused by ill health following a stroke. He said the gun went off while he was trying to remove a jammed bullet, fatally wounding Mr Chanakarn Detkard, 46, who was also his secretary.