PPT wants to highlight a report in the Bangkok Post on the continuing efforts to release red shirts who remain political prisoners, having been locked up by a vengeful Abhisit Vejjajiva government.
The report states that:
cabinet has approved the Justice Ministry’s request for an additional 68.2 million baht from the central fund to bail out red shirts being detained at various prisons for offences related to political violence in 2010….
The ministry’s Justice Fund is reported to have already spent 43.8 million baht approved in January to bail out the red shirts, following the recommendations of the Truth for Reconciliation Commission.
The Justice Fund doesn’t just deal with red shirts. The report notes that it:
has provided financial assistance to help bail out more than 6,000 alleged offenders, including red-shirts and suspects in security-related cases in the South….
The Fund’s spokesperson claims that courts are seeking exceptionally high bail payments for red shirts.
Nine red shirts were reportedly released in Mahasarakham on Monday, bailed at one million baht each. Following that release, a further 30 or so red shirt detainees remain held at various prisons.
These reports repeatedly emphasize that the “bail requests do not cover suspects who have been charged with lese majeste offences.” PPT finds this reprehensible, not least because the lese majeste charge involves lesser sentences (yes, believe it or not) than some of those bailed already. It is one more example of the stupidity associated with the most political of offenses in Thailand.
“Insulting” the monarchy has a status that is beyond both the normal bounds of human justice and logic. The royalist elite shivers and shakes that if truth is expressed, the existing shambolic political system and immense economic privilege will come tumbling down.
