Gen Prawit orders police to speed up investigation in beaten political activist case

[webfact]

Gen Prawit orders police to speed up investigation in beaten political activist case

 

   

BANGKOK, 1 July 2019(NNT) - Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwon has ordered police to speed up the hunt for the men who assaulted Mr. Sirawitch Serithiwat, aka ’Ja New’.

 

Lt Gen Khongcheep Tantrawanich, Defense Ministry Spokesman, disclosed that Gen Prawit expressed concern over violence against political dissidents. He said Gen Prawit had instructed the Royal Thai Police (RTP) to follow up on the progress of the case of Mr. Sirawitch Serithiwat, who was beaten up on June 28.

 

“He asked the police to act swiftly to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice,” Lt Gen Khongcheep said.

 

The spokesman added that Gen Prawit had ordered security forces to improve the protection of people who exercise their rights to express opinions or hold activities within the legal framework.

 

“He urged people to learn from one another, keep an open mind and listen to different views creatively, use rationality more than emotion and refuse to resort to violence or hate speech”, the Defense Ministry Spokesman said.

 

 

-- © Copyright nnt 2019-07-01

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[smutcakes]

Maybe they will find someone who has Thaksin posters on their wall, a UDD card and possibly linked to a weapons cache!!!

[bluesofa]

4 minutes ago, webfact said:

Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwon has ordered police to speed up the hunt for the men who assaulted Mr. Sirawitch Serithiwat, aka ’Ja New’.

How do you 'speed up' an investigation, unless of course you're deliberately dragging your feet to start with?

 

6 minutes ago, webfact said:

“He asked the police to act swiftly to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice,” Lt Gen Khongcheep said.

Surely, it's what the RTP do best - 'acting' to make it look as if they're actually doing something useful?

[Isaanbiker]

Lt Gen Khongcheep Tantrawanich, Defense Ministry Spokesman, disclosed that Gen Prawit expressed concern over violence against political dissidents...

 

And the noses got long and longer.......

 

“He asked the police to act swiftly to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice,” Lt Gen Khongcheep said.

 

Last time when I asked my wife to act swiftly she came by with some stinking Somtham Laos style and tortured me for three hours.

Edited July 1, 2019 by Isaanbiker

[sammieuk1]

This could lead to him arresting himself???? 

[Justgrazing]

19 minutes ago, webfact said:

, use rationality more than emotion

Hahahaha .. Yeah right .. Rationality in a country that has god knows how many different shades of ghosts .. 

[HeyHeyHey]

Quicky, find some Myanmar scapegoats

[rkidlad]

If they do use some scapegoats, it will be interesting to see the reasons they come up with. 

[Reigntax]

1 hour ago, smutcakes said:

Maybe they will find someone who has Thaksin posters on their wall, a UDD card and possibly linked to a weapons cache!!!

I would have thought the Burmese need to quickly go into hiding

[FarFlungFalang]

1 hour ago, bluesofa said:

Surely, it's what the RTP do best - 'acting' to make it look as if they're actually doing something useful?

Surely you jest,I would have thought they act like the are doing nothing much better than they act like they are doing something useful.

[FarFlungFalang]

Obviously Ja New doesn't express views or hold activities within the legal framework.

[Eric Loh]

5 minutes ago, FarFlungFalang said:

Obviously Ja New doesn't express views or hold activities within the legal framework.

Whose legal framework. 

[londonthai]

if minister of defence and defence ministry spokesman go public on subject of beating, it means, that it were soldiers (and not police or whoever), who wanted to kill ja new.

 

now they are trying to cover their own back expressing sympathy with the victim and urging police to work faster.

 

the time is running - the 7 day deadline, which started yesterday, for catching the perpetrators. If they are not apprehended, the name of their military commanding officer will be made public. And that might be somebody close to the ministry, junta or state security agency.

 

 and there might be more than those seen on cctv, support team, possibly the second, armed group 

[Thailand]

They could ask the FFP for cctv footage they found that the police could not. 

[klauskunkel]

Minister General Mai Roo at work

[webfact]

Prawit denies junta behind attacks on critics, wants culprits caught quickly

By The Nation

 

file photo

 

Junta No 2 Gen Prawit Wongsuwan has ordered police to speed up investigation of a brutal assault on Sirawit “Ja New” Seritwat, amid a growing belief that the anti-junta activist is being targeted for political reasons.

 

Prawit was responding to public claims that the junta is using violence against its critics, after a spate of assaults on political activists culminated on Friday when men on motorcycles beat the 27-year-old Ja New with baseball bats, leaving him severely injured. Prawit countered on Monday that he had no violent tendencies.

 

He said the police were investigating the case and would bring the culprits to justice, adding it was unclear if the assault stemmed from a personal or political matter.

 

Sirawit had now been given police protection, he said.

 

Prawit said that while the government could do nothing about claims it was behind the violence, it was doing its best to catch the wrongdoers.

 

Sirawit had also been attacked on June 2 while walking on a Bangkok street, while fellow activist Ekachai Hongkangwan, who has targeted Prawit over his multimillion-baht collection of luxury watches, has faced several assaults over the past few months. No suspects have been caught for the assaults.

 

Friday's attack left Sirawit in a hospital ICU with a broken nose and eye socket, and serious injuries to his head and other parts of his body.

 

He underwent surgery on Sunday to ease breathing problems caused by the broken nose.

 

Meanwhile Sirawit's mother says doctors are monitoring his right-eye socket, which may need surgery after swelling impaired his vision.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30372065

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-07-01

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[Eric Loh]

26 minutes ago, webfact said:

 

Prawit denies junta behind attacks on critics, wants culprits caught quickly

 

While you at it, please investigate who attacked Khun Ekkachai 9 times in 15 months or Khun Anurak couple of times and torched his car. Go back further and investigate who attack those student activists when they visited the Ratchapakah Park. None of the above were investigated so how to believe you Sir. Are you hiding something and protecting someone. 

[btunes]

Jing jing?

[colinneil]

So Ole Fatty says junta not behind the attack on Ja New, does he really expect anybody to believe him?

He would be unable to tell the truth if his life depended on it.

[bluesofa]

10 minutes ago, colinneil said:

So Ole Fatty says junta not behind the attack on Ja New, does he really expect anybody to believe him?

He would be unable to tell the truth if his life depended on it.

Or going back to his medical emergency again - he couldn't tell his arse from his elbow (the one with the watches further along).

[Chang_paarp]

So what about the last attack on the same outspoken individual? Will that investigation be sped up too? Another bunch of military er thugs to find.

[Pedrogaz]

Probably were Burmese.

[sweatalot]

16 minutes ago, Pedrogaz said:

Probably were Burmese.

Yes I wonder when they parade 4 Burmese "reenacting"

[Srikcir]

38 minutes ago, colinneil said:

So Ole Fatty says junta not behind the attack on Ja New, does he really expect anybody to believe him?

Unless you have other articles, these two TV published articles say no such denial by Prawit - aside from The Nation's own Headline.

To repeat Prawit's official statements in the linked Nation article:

• "Prawit was responding to public claims that the junta is using violence against its critics ... Prawit countered on Monday that he had no violent tendencies." This is the same army general that defends death of army conscripts during boot camp as normal. He may not have violent tendencies but I don't see that he abhors violence. Furthermore, he is a commanding general who as DPM, NCPO member and Minister of Defense can direct both police and military to conduct "security" actions against civilians regardless of human right violations.
• "Prawit said that while the government could do nothing about claims it was behind the violence, it was doing its best to catch the wrongdoers." He could have specifically and irrefutably denied that the military and/or police were implicated in any manner with the violence. Instead he defends the government for refusing to examine itself.

In short Prawit makes no direct rejection that the junta or any government agency was connected with the attacks. The military opposition parties are calling for independent investigations to possible government abuse of power. It will be telling if the House pro-military coalition MP's refuse.

[cvs04]

The Burmese done it! Obviously! ????

[YetAnother]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Prawit was responding to public claims that the junta is using violence against its critics,

why does this guy look so clueless all the time, backed by his contentless words , perhaps because he is Both ?

[chama]

5 hours ago, rkidlad said:

If they do use some scapegoats, it will be interesting to see the reasons they come up with. 

When the Toad speaks justice will be done! The political activist will be found guilty of severely beating himself and will be properly penalized (and silenced).

[FarFlungFalang]

5 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

Whose legal framework. 

The legal framework they make up as they go along of course!

[neeray]

1 hour ago, cvs04 said:

The Burmese done it! Obviously! ????

I think the Burmese angle is kind of wore out by now, "obviously".

[Thingamabob]

In other words, the police were ordered to speed up finding scapegoats.