Two former Thai premiers acquitted
> Negligence charges dismissed in win for anti-junta camp
BANGKOK: Thailand’s highest court yesterday acquitted two ex-prime ministers and two former top police officers over their role in a 2008 crackdown on anti-government protesters that killed two people.
Former premier Somchai Wongsawat and his then-deputy Chavalit Yongchaiyudh faced negligence charges over a police operation to remove protesters who had laid siege to parliament.
The deadly incident was one of many violent flare-ups over the past decade between their political camp, a populist movement led by former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, and a conservative Bangkokbased establishment.
Police fought pitched battles with demonstrators, some of whom possessed home-made bombs, and fired multiple rounds of tear gas. Two died and hundreds were wounded.
After the military seized power in 2014, authorities put the four men on trial.
But in its ruling yesterday, nine judges dismissed the case, arguing that authorities had a responsibility to clear the protesters because they had not remained peaceful and that none of the defendants bore direct responsibility for the deaths.
“The protesters surrounded parliament and threatened to storm the building, therefore it was not a peaceful rally.
“The authorities had to use force in order to clear the way,” the court said in its published summary. “The court has dismissed the case.” Somchai and Chavalit both hail from the political faction loyal to Thaksin, the selfexiled billionaire tycoon at the heart of Thailand’s festering political divide.
Somchai, Thaksin’s brother-in-law, was prime minister at the time of the crackdown while Chavalit had served as premier in the 1990s.
Thaksin was ousted by the army in 2006, setting off a decade of instability marked by frequent bouts of political violence, short-lived governments and another army putsch in 2014.
Parties run by or allied to Thaksin’s clan have won every election since 2001, largely through the support of rural and poor voters from the populous north who adore them.
But they are loathed by much of Bangkok’s royalist elite and their military allies who have used street protests, the courts and coups to crush their opponents. – AFP