Terrorism Charges, Financing Case Put Thai Justice System In Uncharted Territory

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ANALYSIS

Terrorism charges, financing case put justice system in uncharted territory

By Chularat Saengpassa

Tulsathit Taptim

The nation

BANGKOK: -- The terrorism charges against key red-shirt leaders and the investigation of their alleged financiers will take the Thai justice system into uncharted territory, one that will almost surely complicate, if not threaten, any reconciliation effort.

In about two months, the case will be wrapped up and readied by the Department of Special Investigation and other concerned agencies, after suspected financiers have clarified ambiguous transactions, some of them worth billions of baht.

It will be presented as one big case as the Abhisit government seeks to link political bloodshed as well as events that preceded it to allegedly malicious motives of people with enough money to systematically create violence.

Legally, it will be a nightmare. Politically, it's a process strewn with booby traps.

The authorities are relying on a new law, ironically enacted by the Thaksin government with the hope of taming the yellow shirts, to build the case against the red movement.

The amended criminal code makes it easier to impose terrorism charges when activities like blockade, sabotage or any scheme that cause heavy business damage are concerned.

Even DSI chief Tharit Pengdit admitted that it was impossible for the people not to draw a comparison with the yellow shirts' cases, although the cases are being handled by the police, not his agency.

The amended law was written in such a way that seizure of Government House and the Suvarnabhumi Airport had to be classified as acts of terrorism.

However, those could be worried about later. His immediate headache is how to differentiate between innocent activities - financial transactions included - and harmful ones.

In other words, for the tens of billions of baht that were allegedly used to fund the red-shirt movement, how much went into buying food and drinks or hiring pick-up trucks, and how much was spent to recruit mercenaries and purchase M79 launchers?

If the authorities go too far, they will end up classifying virtually every protester who encamped at Rajprasong as terrorist. That will wreck the already fragile reconciliation roadmap. But if the authorities focus strictly on bombs, guns and rogue soldiers, blaming the violence on unusual withdrawals of tens of billions of baht will become laughably far-fetched.

One legal strategy is to put a lid on the number of suspected "terrorists" to be formally charged, and try to convince the court that even some seemingly harmless activities of the red shirts had been designed by those pulling the strings to pave the way for eventual violence. This, hopefully, can justify the need to go after tens of billions of baht of suspected financiers.

"People are mistaken that this is all about 83 people or companies who allegedly funded illegal activities," Tharit told The Nation in an exclusive interview yesterday. "The case is meant to present an entire big picture of the whole scheme, how it was planned and carried out from the beginning. In other words, the money was just a piece of the jigsaw puzzle."

The problem is, this seems to be a strategy of circumstantial evidence, to be applied on a grand scale. The authorities require strong, collaborative

evidence to back it up.

Tharit expressed the confidence that he had such evidence, although he admitted that when financial transactions reached the "cash" level, it was difficult to determine whose money went where.

"Thailand has never seen this kind of cases before. It has no precedent," he said. "A lot will be up to the court while our job will be to link suspicious transactions to the violence that occurred. If the suspected financiers used the money for other purposes, their claims must be reliable."

It will be a gruelling legal showdown, he admitted, one that seems set to outlast many rivals' careers. "This is such a mega-case, and, considering it has to go through three courts, maybe it will take seven, or even 10 years," Tharit said.

-- The Nation 2010-06-23

[HAL9000]

This article pretty well hits the nail on the head. It will be impossible to sort out the money earmarked for peaceful demonstration from that used to fund the militants.

[asiawatcher]

In reality the majority of the sheep were not terrorists not to say they would not get involved in trading blows but the real problem are the stage morons. Those who incited to riot. Those who doled out money in exchange for weapons and munitions and certainly those who organised the seizure and displacement of thousands of Thai and foreign nationals.

The middle ground I guess would be the charging, incarceration and in some cases, corporal punishment of those found to have caused death but if the Thai legal system will set the example of the amended law from Thaksin, it would be irony at its best,

Leave the leaders in jail, charge them along with Thaksin and then let the rest run. They are leaderless, they are only sheep and do not deserve any retribution for being conned.