One court decision apparently without the influence of corruption

PPT posted some time ago on the ludicrous and bogus case of a homeless man who was in military and police custody from 16 May for allegedly breaking the provisions of the emergency decree as a red shirt protester. Somphol Wangprasert was prosecuted for violating the Abhisit Vejjajiva regime’s emergency decree by allegedly “conspiring with four or more other people to gather and instigate public unrest and using roads prohibited under the decree.” His claim was that he was going about his normal business of scavenging and playing takraw with friends. That “suspicious” activity landed him in jail and, more remarkably, saw his case come to court, with military and police prosecution witnesses.

Prachatai reports that  the homeless scavenger case has been dismissed by a court. On the positive side, this perhaps is evidence that not all Thai courts are subject to elite influence or corruption. But, this man has been in jail for more than 5 months! Is any so-called human rights lawyer who spoke so strongly just a few years ago against their political enemies going to take up this case and seek adequate compensation and police, military and government apologies? We doubt it. These false defenders of “human rights” are mostly toadies for the regime.

But just to keep people on their toes, a provincial court has managed to come up with a highly politicized verdict. This is the case of yellow-shirted academic from that royalist bastion Chulalongkorn University, Chaiyan Chaiyaporn, who tore up a ballot paper. PPT happens to think that voters should be allowed to do whatever they like with ballot papers, including using them as political symbols. However, Chayan’s defense of his action is false (in part) and evidence of limited political savvy. He should have simply said he was exercising his political freedom to protest. The courts acceptance of politicized arguments and false assessments confirm political bias.