Police prepare as Future Forward boss set to face sedition charges

[webfact]

Police prepare as Future Forward boss set to face sedition charges 

By Supachai Petchthawee 
The Nation 

 

File photo : Thanathorn Jungrungruengkit//Prasert Thepsri

 

The Future Forward leader on Saturday is due to hear sedition charges at Pathumwan police station on Saturday with police preparing for possible large crowds.

 

Thanathorn Jungrungruengkit and his party, which was formed in March last year, proved popular among younger voters. The party came third, according to unofficial results, beating the Democrat Party, therefore large crowd is expected on Saturday.

 

The billionaire turned politician posted the warrant on Facebook, claiming the sedition charge was part of a political game.

 

Pol Maj General Pattana Petyanawin, Bangkok’s commander, said he had ordered Colonel Thammanoon Boonrueng of Pathumwan police to prepare for Thanathorn’s visit to the station.

 

He believed that everything would be peaceful despite the large crowd that was expected. 

 

Some groups had asked permission to gather on the day, Pattana said, adding that they needed to request permission and acted according to the laws.

Thanathorn on Wednesday claimed he had no idea why he was being accused of sedition.

 

He speculated that the legal action, which he characterised as “just an old political game”, comes because his party did far better at the polls than most people expected.

 

“They fear the fact that our policies drew the attention of 6.3 million voters,” he said. “The people supported us without any money incentive or other influence.”

 

However, deputy national police chief General Srivara Rangsibhramanakul said the charges were not politically motivated. 

 

On June 24, 2015, at about 10pm, a group of seven suspects was due to be charged in a martial court at Pathumwan police station but they escaped in a minivan that belonged to a firm owned by Somporn, Thanathorn’s mother.

 

Srivara said Thanathorn was charged because he was with the group of the suspects on that day.

 

Even Somporn was aware of the situation and assigned lawyers to handle the case, Srivara said.

 

“I can confirm that Thanathorn’s warrant is not politically motivated as the alleged incident happened before the election. The case was delayed because of the annual transfer of chief investigators,” Srivara said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30367141

 



-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-04-04

[Thailand]

Perfect storm brewing, major mistake by the junta. Oops, sorry, the junta were not involved

[KennethSmiles]

Good luck Thanathorn.

 

I hope you get through this soon. Don't let the system grind you down!

[z42]

A pure BS charge. 4 years down the line and the charge morphs from abetting suspects to sedition.

 

If it was that serious then, why wait 4 years to bring him in. This is a badly hatched plan to kill his credibility / political career. And neither will have the desired effect as it'll only make a bigger martyr out of him.

 

His popularity grows by the day, and with good reason. Everything he's said appears to be on the money 

[Denim]

1 minute ago, z42 said:

A pure BS charge. 4 years down the line and the charge morphs from abetting suspects to sedition.

 

If it was that serious then, why wait 4 years to bring him in. This is a badly hatched plan to kill his credibility / political career. And neither will have the desired effect as it'll only make a bigger martyr out of him.

 

His popularity grows by the day, and with good reason. Everything he's said appears to be on the money 

 

All they want to do is bring this trumped up charge to court , find him guilty and hand down a 6 month suspended sentence, thereby wrecking his political career as a criminal record of any kind makes it illegal for him to run for office. Pathetic.

 

In the beginning , many people ( including many TV posters ) were fooled by this ' benign ' coup. Now the scales have fallen from even the dimmest persons eyes and everyone now knows the nature of the kindly beast. 

 

When social media has built up a full head of steam and everyone has vented their spleen it only remains to be seen if enough effrontery has been built up to get people on the streets to bring this evil farce to an end as happened in the past.

 

If not, then the song ' prathet goo mee ' will need another verse about a brow beaten population grown over accustomed to sucking it up.

[Longcut]

The world is watching and laughing at Thailand.  Talk about" I'm taking my ball and going home", mentality. 

[bannork]

10 minutes ago, Denim said:

 

All they want to do is bring this trumped up charge to court , find him guilty and hand down a 6 month suspended sentence, thereby wrecking his political career as a criminal record of any kind makes it illegal for him to run for office. Pathetic.

 

In the beginning , many people ( including many TV posters ) were fooled by this ' benign ' coup. Now the scales have fallen from even the dimmest persons eyes and everyone now knows the nature of the kindly beast. 

 

When social media has built up a full head of steam and everyone has vented their spleen it only remains to be seen if enough effrontery has been built up to get people on the streets to bring this evil farce to an end as happened in the past.

 

If not, then the song ' prathet goo mee ' will need another verse about a brow beaten population grown over accustomed to sucking it up.

i think you have to be actually imprisoned before being banned as an MP. This is only the first step. There are three courts before he could actually be sent down. That should take years.

[Denim]

1 minute ago, bannork said:

i think you have to be actually imprisoned before being banned as an MP. This is only the first step. There are three courts before he could actually be sent down. That should take years.

 

I will defer to your opinion. Certainly hope that is the case.

 

Any way you look at it they have got it in for him.

[Eric Loh]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

On June 24, 2015, at about 10pm, a group of seven suspects was due to be charged in a martial court at Pathumwan police station but they escaped in a minivan that belonged to a firm owned by Somporn, Thanathorn’s mother.

The accounts from one of the 'suspects' Rangsiman was just the opposite. They were at Pathumwan police station to file a complaint that he and many other student activists were physically attacked by police and security officers at an anti-junta rally. They left the police station (not escaped) and Thanathorn gave them a ride. This is a deep state set-up to find excuse to cold storage Thanathorn for his big election win. Pathetic junta action against political enemies.

[bannork]

1 minute ago, Denim said:

 

I will defer to your opinion. Certainly hope that is the case.

 

Any way you look at it they have got it in for him.

Rangsima Rome, one of the accused who it is said Thanathorn helped to flee from the police station, denied today that Thanathorn helped him escape. He said Thanathorn's vehicle passed by but he thought Thai Summit, Thanathorn's company was Thai Samut (an insurance company).

[nong38]

He is obviously seen as a future threat and to be dis credited, who would stoop to such depths one must ask and what are they afraid of?

[bowerboy]

42 minutes ago, Longcut said:

The world is watching and laughing at Thailand.  Talk about" I'm taking my ball and going home", mentality. 

 

The world is not watching. Thailand is a third world back water famed for its thriving sex industry and numerous transsexuals. 

 

Nobody cares. Really.

 

Not trying to be facetious or annoy you...it’s simply a fact. 

 

 

[Orton Rd]

'Not politically motivated', how stupid do they think the public are? if they put him away the country has no hope for the foreseeable future, not that it had a lot.

[observer90210]

The boys in uniforms who are behind all the social unrest and doubts,  do not realise that on the short term they will scare away tourists, expats or foreign investors.....and mainly also scare away their good money !!

Edited April 4, 2019 by observer90210

[nikmar]

https://politicalprisonersofthailand.wordpress.com/2019/04/04/this-is-sedition/

 

[ocddave]

If I were to write up a recipe for Civil War, then the actions of Prayut, the PPP Party, the Army chief, and Big Joke would be the key ingredients. Who in their right mind would even proceed like they are?! You have to wonder if its deliberate, or is it in their DNA to be this obtuse.

[ocddave]

1 hour ago, bowerboy said:

 

The world is not watching. Thailand is a third world back water famed for its thriving sex industry and numerous transsexuals. 

 

Nobody cares. Really.

 

Not trying to be facetious or annoy you...it’s simply a fact. 

 

 

Shush! I am sure they will disagree, thinking they are one-step away from 1st World status, when they are actually one misstep away from becoming a Banana Republic.

[perthuniversity]

10 hours ago, bannork said:

i think you have to be actually imprisoned before being banned as an MP. This is only the first step. There are three courts before he could actually be sent down. That should take years.

this should the case (in a sane location) but unfortunately, i'd say anything is possible - the court decisions here have been absolutely shocking for as long as I've known (approx. 20 years)

[neeray]

The current, self appointed, non-elected administration knows no shame. Contrary to the popular belief that Thais rate "face" so high, they apparently don't care. All they care about is remaining at the trough.

With that said, I'm guessing that if they don't remain in power, many dirty little secrets will no longer be a secret. 

[Bundooman]

16 hours ago, bowerboy said:

 

The world is not watching. Thailand is a third world back water famed for its thriving sex industry and numerous transsexuals. 

 

Nobody cares. Really.

 

Not trying to be facetious or annoy you...it’s simply a fact. 

 

 

Exactly! Nobody really cares about Cambodia, Myanmar, China, Russia, Saudi, S. America and hordes of African countries plus dozens of other virtual dictatorships around the world. Why should anyone care what happens in Thailand?

[bannork]

1 minute ago, Bundooman said:

Exactly! Nobody really cares about Cambodia, Myanmar, China, Russia, Saudi, S. America and hordes of African countries plus dozens of other virtual dictatorships around the world. Why should anyone care what happens in Thailand?

Well it seems you care, you read the thread  I can't speak for other countries but a considerable number of people in the UK follow events in Thailand, no doubt because many have relatives living here or relatives married to Thais. So many UK citizens seemed to have visited Thailand too. 

[TKDfella]

16 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

'Not politically motivated', how stupid do they think the public are? if they put him away the country has no hope for the foreseeable future, not that it had a lot.

Unfortunately, they DO think this how stupid the public are. Unless he gets some real mass backing 'they' will win. No one 'lifted a finger' in the past four years and the junta expect the same to happen here...at least that is their gamble. Would be great to see them get a real big surprise but...

Edited April 5, 2019 by TKDfella

[malibukid]

trouble in river city

[freedomnow]

17 hours ago, KennethSmiles said:

Good luck Thanathorn.

 

I hope you get through this soon. Don't let the system grind you down!

He saw your post and said "Thanks bro !"

[malibukid]

14 minutes ago, TKDfella said:

Unfortunately, they DO think this how stupid the public are. Unless he gets some real mass backing 'they' will win. No one 'lifted a finger' in the past four years and the junta expect the same to happen here...at least that is their gamble. Would be great to see them get a real big surprise but...

the apathy here is deafening

[sammieuk1]

He is a problem what to do with a seemingly incorruptible billionaire that's hugely popular and hates big guns answer fit him up ????

[malagateddy]

Quite a few mates of mine in the UK are watching and commenting on social media
Word does get round

 
The world is not watching. Thailand is a third world back water famed for its thriving sex industry and numerous transsexuals. 
 
Nobody cares. Really.
 
Not trying to be facetious or annoy you...it’s simply a fact. 
 
 

Sent from my SM-G7102 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[hotchilli]

19 hours ago, webfact said:

On June 24, 2015, at about 10pm, a group of seven suspects was due to be charged in a martial court at Pathumwan police station but they escaped in a minivan that belonged to a firm owned by Somporn, Thanathorn’s mother.

So something that happened almost 4 years ago & has sat idly in an in-tray somewhere has suddenly been found and deemed to be important now !

How totally ridiculous !

[donim]

[Jingthing]

20 hours ago, Longcut said:

The world is watching and laughing at Thailand.  Talk about" I'm taking my ball and going home", mentality. 

Nope. If there aren't boys stuck in a cave here, the world is NOT watching.