Stolen diamond found in woman’s intestine

BANGKOK (TIP): The good news for the Chinese visitor to Bangkok was that a doctor had successfully removed a foreign object from her large intestine that could have damaged her digestive system. The bad news -It was a 10 million baht ($278,000) diamond the woman was accused of stealing from a jewelry fair, adding a piece of rock-hard evidence to the case against her. Police colonel Mana Tienmaungpak said on Sunday that authorities got to the bottom of the theft when a doctor wielding a colonoscope and the medical equivalent of pliers pulled the 6-carat gemstone from the large intestine of the woman alleged to have filched it, after nature and laxatives failed to get it out. The woman, identified as 39-year-old Jiang Xulian, and a Chinese man were arrested on Thursday night at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on their way out of Thailand on the basis of surveillance video from the fair just outside Bangkok, where earlier that day the duo allegedly switched a fake stone for the real one after asking to inspect it. The suspects initially denied involvement, but X-rays showed a gem-like object in the woman’s intestine, and she then confessed. If convicted, the two face up to three years in prison, according to police. Mana, the chief investigator for the case, said the woman agreed to Sep 10 delicate operation after being told the gemstone risked injuring her.