Pro-Thaksin leaders jailed 2 years for seizing Nation buildings

BANGKOK: -- The Criminal Court on Monday sentenced to two years in jail the five pro-Thaksin leaders who led protesters seizing the Nation buildings on Bangna Trat three years ago.

The four defendants; Kamta Danbunjan, Chupong Theethuan, Thanawit Palakawong Na Ayutthayawere and Samrueng Adisa were ordered to pay a fine of Bt180 each while other defendants; Thanawit Palakawong Na Ayutthaya were ordered to pay a fine of Bt120 each.

The court found them guilty of leading about 1,000 to 1,300 protesters to seize the Nation buildings in 2006 and threatened the newspaper to hand over a reporter.

The seizure started in the morning am and ended at about 8pm after lengthy negotiation.

The court commuted the sentence from three to two years after the defendants confessed during the trial.

-- The Nation 2009-11-30

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Lets seize The Government House or the Airports. It's free of any charge.

180b fine? LOL

Oh come on! Surely you're not suggesting the judiciary is capable of understanding the concept of accountability?

Jail terms of up to 2 years can be totally suspended. I wonder if that was the case in this one.

This was one of the earliest cases to come to court. Now it has set a precedent (except legally precedent doesnt exist in Thai law) and it will be interesting to see if the later cases involving PAD also go this route of sentencing.

in the title of the first article is "Seizing", the next artcile (from the same newspaper) is "besieging", yet another newspaper call it "Surrounding".

something lost in translation or misinformation ie political propaganda?

and there is no info why protesters targeted this magazine. was it something again about political propaganda and distorting facts?

but then the nation wouldn't like to write much about it, wouldn't they?

the truth is somewhere else, and the defendant's "confession to the crime" doesn't have to mean anything, than yet another reporters interpretation what happened in court.

and who said that courts in are independent from the government administration? aren't they a tool of class oppression in the hands of those at power?

A little bit about the background for anyone interested:

http://nationmultimedia.com/2006/03/31/pol...cs_30000597.php

A little bit about the background for anyone interested:

http://nationmultimedia.com/2006/03/31/pol...cs_30000597.php

in that article there is not a word about thaksin, it wasn't the nation but Kom Chad Luek - they ran an apology for a questionable article on its front page, asked for a royal pardon, stopped publishing for 5 days as self-punishement, editor resigned and the responsible news editor was replaced.

so far this article in the nation are all lies, and 6 protesters from the caravan of the poor might end up behind bars and have now criminal record, forbidding them to stand for the public office.

thai leading english paper, court and the government are doing just fine, hand in hand