6 Thai protest leaders sentenced to 2 years behind bars
Six key anti-government protest leaders in Thailand have been sentenced to two years in jail on charges of trespassing on the prime minister’s office compound during massive protest rallies in 2008.
According to a Criminal Court judge, former media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul and five other prominent leaders of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) were given the two-year jail sentences on Thursday.
Based on evidence, the verdict said, “The defendants and the protesters had trespassed into the Government House by climbing the fence and cutting of the locks, which damaged the government’s properties and affected other people’s rights and freedom.”
Back in 2008, thousands of protesters, known as the Yellow Shirts, accused the premier of being a proxy of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a military coup in 2006.
The Yellow Shirts accused Thaksin of corruption and claimed that his proxies were in control of the country after he went into self-imposed exile in 2008 to avoid a two-year prison sentence over corruption charges following the coup.
The Yellow Shirts leaders held the grounds of the premier’s office for weeks, ordered a blockade of the Parliament and had Bangkok airports under control for 14 days.
Suwat Apaipak, the leaders’ lawyer, said the defendants were released on bail, planning to appeal the verdict, which has once been reduced from three years of imprisonment to two.
Thailand is currently run by the military, which seized power on May, 22, 2014 following months of anti-government protests and violence in the country. Incumbent Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha, who formerly served as the head of the armed forces, forced out Thaksin’s sister and former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
MIS/NN/GHN
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