Jakrapob rails against weapons charges and accuses regime of human rights abuses

By The Nation

 

 

FORMER MINISTER Jakrapob Penkair, a prime suspect accused of possessing military-grade weapons, yesterday lashed out against the charges, saying he would take an “international trip” to clear his name.

 

It was unclear whether he was referring to returning to Thailand.

 

Jakrapob and four other suspects are wanted on arrest warrants issued last week in connection with the reported discovery of military-grade weapons in Chachoengsao’s Bang Nam Priao district last week.

 

The former deputy commander of the 3rd Army Region, Lt-General Manas Paorik, as well as Wattana Sapwichian, Chaiwat Polpho and Somjet Khongwattana were also named as key suspects.

 

“The military government has just pressed charges against me and a few others of possessing military weapons with the intent to use them for political purposes,” he said on Facebook yesterday. 

 

Jakropob is known to be residing outside of Thailand.

The charges against him and the others were false, groundless and a major violation of human rights, he said, adding that he had left the Kingdom in exile since the political turmoil in 2009. 

 

“Any idea of using violence has never been a part of my political thinking and planning,” he said. 

 

While there was no information about Chaiwat and Somjet yesterday, Manas surrendered to authorities and was freed on bail on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Wattana was summoned and detained for questioning on December 1 and released on Thursday, according to junta Spokesman Maj-General Piyapong Klinpan yesterday.

 

Wattana had provided authorities with useful information, he said.

 

Wattana was convicted of crimes in 2014 related to military weapons and sentenced to 40 months in jail. Because of his confession, his jail term was commuted to 20 months and he had just completed the term. 

 

National Police Commissioner Pol General Chakthip Chaijinda said yesterday that Deputy National Police Commissioner Pol General Srivara Ransibrahmanakul was investigating the origins of the military weapons that were discovered in Chachoengsao late last month. 

Chakthip added that police had actually discovered military weapons periodically between 2014 and 2017.

 

“We have been closely monitoring groups related to national security, politics and social media mobilisation,” he said. “Without active intelligence operations, we would have not been able to seize the latest batch of military weapons.” 

 

In a separate development, Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan will call a meeting with security agencies to discuss security measures next Thursday, Defence Ministry spokesman Lt-General Kongcheep Tantrawanich said. 

 

Prawit has ordered security agencies including the military, police and security officials from the Interior Ministry to gather information to prepare security measures for the public as well as measures for road safety, he said. 

 

The information will include past statistics for crime rates, unrest, road accidents and casualties, as well as drugs, he said. The measure was expected to be implemented from this month until after New Year’s, Kongcheep said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30333528

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-12-09

59 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

saying he would take an “international trip” to clear his name.

Hilarious, not fleeing the country, just on a bit of a working vacation.

53 minutes ago, ramrod711 said:

Hilarious, not fleeing the country, just on a bit of a working vacation.

He might be innocent too if he has not been in the country since 2009, if he is lying about that then he is a suspect. I guess it should be easy to find out if the guy was even in the country in the last years. 

2 hours ago, robblok said:

He might be innocent too if he has not been in the country since 2009, if he is lying about that then he is a suspect. I guess it should be easy to find out if the guy was even in the country in the last years. 

 

Wikipedia has him living in Cambodia.

 

And from August 2017 Interview:

"Sitting in a café in central Phnom Penh seven years later, exiled Redshirt dissident Jakrapob Penkair thumps his hand on the table in frustration as the afternoon rain beats down on the green tin roof."

 

I have not pasted the link because the article contains "interesting" opinions about the power structure in Thailand.

 

The KhmerTimes (as of Thursday) report that the government is denying his presence.

 

As did the Cambodia Herald.......in June 2014.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 9, 20178 yr by Enoon

2 minutes ago, Enoon said:

 

Wikipedia has him living in Cambodia.

 

And from August 2017 Interview:

 

Whatever happened to… Thailand's Redshirts? - Southeast Asia Globe

"Sitting in a café in central Phnom Penh seven years later, exiled Redshirt dissident Jakrapob Penkair thumps his hand on the table in frustration as the afternoon rain beats down on the green tin roof."

 

 

Its not as if its not easy to get back into the country from Cambodia. It would have been more convincing if he had been living in Europe or somewhere. Still the guy could certainly be innocent let them check it out

 

Smart enough to get out quickly. He stand no chance with junta justice and in junta cell.

12 minutes ago, robblok said:

Its not as if its not easy to get back into the country from Cambodia. It would have been more convincing if he had been living in Europe or somewhere. Still the guy could certainly be innocent let them check it out

 

 

When I first read the accusations my immediate uninformed reaction (upon seeing his photo) was that he "looked" like a good candidate for leadership, that the Junta had got wind of such a succession..........and was trying to smear him.

 

More so than it being part of the generalised "stalling" process.

 

 

4 hours ago, robblok said:

He might be innocent too if he has not been in the country since 2009, if he is lying about that then he is a suspect. I guess it should be easy to find out if the guy was even in the country in the last years. 

I don't know if he was in the country or not, but they showed the weapons on television news, they included grenades and automatic weapons. I know that red shirts would never get involved in such a thing, well there was that machine shop building the m79 grenade launchers, but other than that.....

2 minutes ago, ramrod711 said:

I don't know if he was in the country or not, but they showed the weapons on television news, they included grenades and automatic weapons. I know that red shirts would never get involved in such a thing, well there was that machine shop building the m79 grenade launchers, but other than that.....

I am not saying the redshirts are not behind this, they most likely are. It could be a arms cache for later or a forgotten one. We have seen how violent they have been and know they have weapons like this from the Trad killings and many other killings. However right now I doubt that these arm caches were used or soon to be used it would not have been in their advantage to do so. 

 

This guy is a redshirt leader, does not mean he is automatically guilty i like them to actually catch the ones responsible for this not just pointing a finger without any proof. 

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

discovery of military-grade weapons in Chachoengsao

in a rice field?

they get 3 crops a year in Chachoengsao

can't have been there long!

4 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

Smart enough to get out quickly. He stand no chance with junta justice and in junta cell.

 

Except that, according to his remarks in the OP, he actually left several years ago, long before the coup.

 

" Jakropob is known to be residing outside of Thailand.  The charges against him and the others were false, groundless and a major violation of human rights, he said, adding that he had left the Kingdom in exile since the political turmoil in 2009. "

2 hours ago, ramrod711 said:

I don't know if he was in the country or not, but they showed the weapons on television news, they included grenades and automatic weapons. I know that red shirts would never get involved in such a thing, well there was that machine shop building the m79 grenade launchers, but other than that.....

You make two untrustable assumptions about the Junta:

- that the army did not plant weapons, and

- in the hypothetical case they did not plant them, that the Junta points at the right direction.

 

13 minutes ago, candide said:

You make two untrustable assumptions about the Junta:

- that the army did not plant weapons, and

- in the hypothetical case they did not plant them, that the Junta points at the right direction.

 

I'm not assuming that he IS guilty and I'm not blindly accepting that he isn't. The weapons that I saw did not look serviceable, rusty and covered in muck. I imagine that any soldier could put the weapons right in a short amount of time, the grenades I don't know. Someone put them there, junta, red shirts, yellow shirts or communists from 50 years ago, I don't know

38 minutes ago, ramrod711 said:

I'm not assuming that he IS guilty and I'm not blindly accepting that he isn't. The weapons that I saw did not look serviceable, rusty and covered in muck. I imagine that any soldier could put the weapons right in a short amount of time, the grenades I don't know. Someone put them there, junta, red shirts, yellow shirts or communists from 50 years ago, I don't know

Let me add one more assumption. Could be gun runners inside the military. Just this July, a army officer was caught with the same kind of hardwares when he crushed his pickup. We know that the military personnel steal and sell arms. That military personnel may have cold feet and did a quick convenient disposal in the rice field. The junta will never admit this. 

You make two untrustable assumptions about the Junta:
- that the army did not plant weapons, and
- in the hypothetical case they did not plant them, that the Junta points at the right direction.

 

In the past they never did any false flag actions. They never planted evidence. They did however make false accusations in the past. But its highly likely this was a redshirt arms cache given the location. Just have to finger the right redshirts.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

8 hours ago, robblok said:

Its not as if its not easy to get back into the country from Cambodia. It would have been more convincing if he had been living in Europe or somewhere. Still the guy could certainly be innocent let them check it out

 

Let who check it out? not the most corrupt police force in the world please

 

I met some of these people in Cambodia and they did not come across as people who where fighting a war, they left because of the way they where being rounded up and jailed just for supporting a political movement. They where scared stiff and 1 even showed the torture scars. They have no money and live by the side of the road scratching a living any way legal as they know cross the line and they get sent back.

 

I listened to their story's and boy it brings tears to your eyes and to see the children suffering as they are, is against all human rights. One couple who lived in a block where red supports also lived but did not have any connection with them was summoned to the police station on bomb making charges. They did not know how to make rice so yes this guys statement rings true to me.

 

Persecution and nothing else.

 

Don't take my word go and meet them yourself and as an ex cop, I can say they are not out to con you into thinking sorry for them or tell you lies like they do nearer to home. its so easy to blame those who cannot fight back until Facebook arrived.

6 hours ago, robblok said:

In the past they never did any false flag actions. They never planted evidence. They did however make false accusations in the past. But its highly likely this was a redshirt arms cache given the location. Just have to finger the right redshirts.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk
 

Has anyone ever been allowed to investigate if the Junta has planted evidence or not in the past ? 

The army has a record of doing much worse than planting evidence: killing, abducting, trafficking, etc.... Why would there be a mysterious rule according to which they would not plant evidence?

9 hours ago, ramrod711 said:

I'm not assuming that he IS guilty and I'm not blindly accepting that he isn't. The weapons that I saw did not look serviceable, rusty and covered in muck. I imagine that any soldier could put the weapons right in a short amount of time, the grenades I don't know. Someone put them there, junta, red shirts, yellow shirts or communists from 50 years ago, I don't know

The weapons I have seen in photos on several websites would be considered scrap in any armed forces I ever served in.

21 hours ago, robblok said:

I am not saying the redshirts are not behind this, they most likely are. It could be a arms cache for later or a forgotten one. We have seen how violent they have been and know they have weapons like this from the Trad killings and many other killings. However right now I doubt that these arm caches were used or soon to be used it would not have been in their advantage to do so. 

 

This guy is a redshirt leader, does not mean he is automatically guilty i like them to actually catch the ones responsible for this not just pointing a finger without any proof. 

does not mean he is automatically guilty

well, but for the dictator he has to be guilty as any of his red shirts opponents.

12 hours ago, candide said:

Has anyone ever been allowed to investigate if the Junta has planted evidence or not in the past ? 

The army has a record of doing much worse than planting evidence: killing, abducting, trafficking, etc.... Why would there be a mysterious rule according to which they would not plant evidence?

Just look at all the bombings of the past you guys were always calling false lag that the army did it and not once was that allegation proven true. So why now all of a sudden would the army start planting evidence why deviate from the past actions. 

 

There is no rule against them doing so but it has never been proven they do so so Ocam's razor would say that its highly likely they don't do that now. Also given the past of the redshirts its highly likely they have arms caches.  

 

17 hours ago, wakeupplease said:

Let who check it out? not the most corrupt police force in the world please

 

I met some of these people in Cambodia and they did not come across as people who where fighting a war, they left because of the way they where being rounded up and jailed just for supporting a political movement. They where scared stiff and 1 even showed the torture scars. They have no money and live by the side of the road scratching a living any way legal as they know cross the line and they get sent back.

 

I listened to their story's and boy it brings tears to your eyes and to see the children suffering as they are, is against all human rights. One couple who lived in a block where red supports also lived but did not have any connection with them was summoned to the police station on bomb making charges. They did not know how to make rice so yes this guys statement rings true to me.

 

Persecution and nothing else.

 

Don't take my word go and meet them yourself and as an ex cop, I can say they are not out to con you into thinking sorry for them or tell you lies like they do nearer to home. its so easy to blame those who cannot fight back until Facebook arrived.

I though you were the owner of a webhosting service not an ex cop. I must have mixed my stories up. The guy they are fingering is nothing like the guys you describe he is rich. 

 

Anyway I am not saying the arms were his as the army has a history of pointing fingers and not proving it. I do however think the find is genuine. But I am thinking its an old cache of arms and that the redshirts are NOT planning any bombs right now. Its just not in their best interest right now.