The Bangkok Post (7 September 2009: “Four found guilty in Oct 7 crackdown”) reports the outcome of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) investigation into the violence that took place during the People’s Alliance for Democracy occupation of parliament on 7 October 2008.
It reports that one of the four people found guilty of criminal offences is police chief General Patcharawat Wongsuwan. That will presumably end Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s on-going dispute with the police chief over his successor. Getting Chavalit out of the picture is a good thing for the government as well, for he is sometimes touted as a potential opposition leader.
The others found guilty were “former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat, former deputy prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, and former metropolitan police chief Pol Lt-Gen Suchart Muankaew.” The NACC found Somchai and Chavalit “guilty of ordering the crackdown in violation of Article 157 of the Criminal Code.” Patcharawat and Suchart were “found guilty of criminal offences under Article 157 of the Criminal Code and serious breach of discipline for not giving an order to end the police action after people had died and many been injured on the morning of Oct 7.”
NACC Commissioner Klanarong Chanthik said “that the four men would be indicted before the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions within 15 days.”
As has become usual, the Post reports that the violence that day “left two people dead and hundreds injured.” PPT recalls that one of those killed was a PAD supporter blown up in his own car bomb. Readers should correct us if we are mistaken on this.
PPT would now expect that legal proceedings would now be taken against the PAD leaders who organized illegal events over many months. But such expectations are hardly likely to be fulfilled by this government and its so-called independent agencies or by the essentially tame courts.
Political Prisoners in Thailand 