Italian-Thai Development Corporation boss Premchai Karnasuta’s wife, Mrs Kanitta, has asked the Criminal Cour for permission to have her four impounded  elephant ivory tasks to be sent for carbon tests to determine their ages and legal status.

Mrs Kanita, through her lawyer, made the request with the court when she, Premchai and a close aide, Ms Wandee Sompoom, were present at the Criminal Court this morning to attend a pre-trial hearing to examine documents related to the four impounded ivory tusks.

The trio are facing charges of possessing four African ivory tusks without proper license, illegal import of the tusks and concealing the tusks for personal keeping.

The defendants have asked for the four ivory tusks to be sent to Chulalongkorn University and the Medical Science Faculty of Mahidol University to be subjected for tests to determine their ages and legal status.

The court asked the public prosecutor whether he had any objection to the defendants’ request and he said no.  The court then ordered the prosecutor to contact the police inquiry officers in charge of the case to have the four tusks to be brought before the court on October 8 before they were to be sent for scientific tests.

Mrs Kanita earlier claimed that the four ivory tusks were inherited from her family in 1987.