Judge Nittaya Yamsri said the Bangkok Criminal Court was unable to finish considering the evidence in time due to the large number of documents filed by both sides.

For those keen to escape the hustle and bustle and with a few days to spare, the island of Koh Samui is a good bet.

Located just over an hour’s flight south in the Gulf of Thailand, Koh Samui has earned a reputation as a getaway paradise in the same league as places such as Goa and Bali.

The name Samui is even thought to have originated from the Malay word for “haven.”

It was Malay fishermen who first settled on its coconut palm-lined shores 15 centuries ago.

The island, Thailand’s second largest, is sometimes dismissed as too commercial. Steer clear of the east coast town of Chaweng, with its McDonald’s restaurants and retailers of counterfeit DVDs – a mini Bangkok itself – and the island feels closer to its fishing roots.

Secluded resorts nestled between lushly-vegetated rolling hills and white-sand beaches will restore even the most jaded soul.

After some R&R, it is worth sampling the island’s variety of activities. Pose for a photo with a tiger at the Namuang Safari Park, take an elephant trek through the jungle or search for souvenirs in the Fisherman’s Village, a cluster of trendy shops and restaurants.

Business travellers looking to lie low after a string of meetings can even recreate their own version of The Beach, by visiting the tiny nearby island of Koh Phangan, where the author Alex Garland set his best-selling book.

Although the paradise described in the tale, and captured in a 2000 film adaption of the same name, has been largely swamped by backpackers, the natural beauty of the sculptured limestone scenery is still breathtaking.

In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs on Monday said Linglingay Lacanlale, Philippine Ambassador to Thailand, met with Director General Charn Saralertsophon of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) last March 22 to discuss steps that would strengthen the economic ties between the two countries.

South Africa’s ambassador to Thailand Ruby Marks confirmed last night that the embassy in Bangkok received a call about 1am yesterday morning to assist, as Palazzolo was travelling on a SA passport.

The year began with three back-to-back festivals — the World Film Festival of Bangkok, Bangkok Experimental Festival, and the Bangkok International Forest Film Festival.

In what was Asia’s second-largest initial public offering this year, the Tesco Lotus Retail Growth Freehold & Leasehold Property Fund highlighted investor appetite for Thailand and the UK blue chip.

Two Russian tourists died and about 20 people suffered smoke inhalation.

“We are 100-percent ready to resume services on Tuesday,” the general manager of Don Mueang International Airport in the north of the city, Kanputt Mungklasiri, said.

The man was named by police as Norouzi Shaya Ali Akbar, 57, wanted on charges of possessing and making explosives. Three men are in custody in Thailand and Malaysia and two other people, a man and a woman, are also being sought after last week’s blasts in Bangkok.

It isn’t every day that a man with bloody hands emerges from a convenience store and returns home to continue chopping up tigers, zebras and wild buffalo in an underground slaughterhouse.

So Thai police officers on a routine street patrol in north-east Bangkok had a lucky break when, by chance, they crossed paths with a member of a wild animal meat gang who had nipped out to buy some butchering supplies.

On following the man, Thai police discovered four other men chopping up a large male tiger. Zebra, crocodile, wild buffalo and elephant carcasses, along with 400kg of tiger meat, were also found in the building, ready to be sold as exotic meat and trophies.

“We found one tiger in an ice box, where it was being preserved with formaldehyde, and a lot of bones. On the floor, there were fresh cuts of white tiger, elephant and lion skins,” the Thai nature crime police commander, Colonel Norasak Hemnithi, said. “The suspects later told us that they had gone out looking for ice to store the fresh meats.”

Police have since arrested eight people, including the alleged mastermind, in what they and local wildlife organisations believe is a smuggling operation fronted by Bangkok zoos.

The case has shed light on Thailand’s place at the heart of an estimated $10bn global trade in endangered species that is driving many plants and animals to extinction, according to wildlife groups. It highlights a worrying trend in which the meat of endangered animals is sold in resort restaurants in southern Thailand.

Demand for trophy items and exotic meats across Asia, but particularly in China, has driven up the trade in elephants, big cats, reptiles and birds.

The anti-wildlife trafficking group Freeland, which is working with police on the investigation, suspects the animals came from, or were sold through, private zoos in Thailand. “It’s hard for police to go after zoos because there’s a legal loophole [here] that can easily be used to front a breeding operation. Zoos have a permit to own tigers, so they can breed the tigers and sell the offspring,” said a Freeland spokesman, Roy Schlieben, adding that an adult tiger could fetch more than $10,000.

Raids in Thailand, which heads the 10-country Asean Wildlife Enforcement Network in south-east Asia, have risen nearly tenfold in five years, Freeland said.

The director general of the Thai wildlife agency said last month that poachers had slaughtered two wild elephants for their meat in a national park. Damrong Phidet told the Associated Press that trunks and sexual organs had been ordered by restaurants in Phuket. Some of the meat was to be consumed without cooking, like “elephant sashimi”, he said.

But critics claim police are only touching the tip of the iceberg. “A lot of catches are lucky catches,” Edwin Wiek, of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, said. “In Saturday’s case, the criminal was only caught because he went to 7-Eleven and had blood on his hands. These criminals are making a lot of money and have nothing to fear – the penalties are very low and hardly any jail sentences are given to these people.”

The men arrested this month could face four years in prison and fines of 40,000 baht (£820) for illegally processing wild and protected animals, but Wiek and Schlieben said prison terms were unlikely and called for harsher penalties.

Tiger skins are often sold as trophy items to wealthy buyers in China, Thailand and Vietnam, with animal parts such as tiger bones being used in traditional Chinese medicine, Schlieben said, adding: “Then you’ve got mounted tigers, considered status symbols, and wild meat being consumed because it’s ‘more healthy’ than domesticated animals.”

Despite the increased number of wildlife criminal arrests in the past few years, Thai police have admitted they are still far from cracking the organised smuggling of animals through Thailand and abroad.

“We see about 100 [wildlife] cases per year,” Norasak said. “We’re [usually] able to catch the criminal but not the [mastermind] behind him. But we work consistently to investigate further and process cases.”

The raid was the latest in a string of high-profile cases. A United Arab Emirates citizen was arrested at Suvarnabhumi airport, Bangkok, last May. He had live infant leopards, panthers, monkeys and an Asiatic black bear stuffed in his luggage.