Appeals Court acquits ‘popcorn’ gunman

[webfact]

Appeals Court acquits ‘popcorn’ gunman
By The Nation

 

BANGKOK: -- The Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned the conviction ruling of the Criminal Court against a Surat Thani man accused of being the “popcorn gunman” who shot dead a man and injured four other people at a 2014 red-shirt protest.

 

The Appeals Court ruled that there were no witnesses to implicate Wiwat Yodprasit in the crime.

 

The gunman fired a M16 assault rifle covered with a popcorn bag at red-shirt protesters in February 2014.

 

During the clash between protesters led by the People’s Democratic Reform Committee and red-shirt protesters at Lak Si Intersection near the IT Square shopping mall on February 1 2014, a man was seen firing the M16 at the red-shirt side. Akaew Saelim, 70, was killed.

 

Police arrested Wiwat in Surat Thani province on March 19, 2014.

 

On March 3, 2016, the Criminal Court sentenced Wiwat to 37 years in jail for murder and carrying a gun in public.

 

Despite the acquittal, the Appeals Court ordered Wiwat to be detained pending the Supreme Court’s decision on the case.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/breakingnews/30319217

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-06-27

[webfact]

“Popcorn” gunman acquitted of charges

 

 

BANGKOK: -- The masked gunman who was seen shooting at redshirt supporters with an assault rifle concealed in a popcorn bag during an anti-government riot in February 2014 was acquitted of the crimes he earlier confessed.

 

The ruling that the Popcorn gunman was innocent by the Appeals Court today was a reversal of earlier ruling by the Criminal Court that sentenced Vivat Yodprasert, known among demonstrators as the “popcorn gunman” to more than 37 years in prison for murder and attempted murder at the riot at Laksi intersection as a result of a high profile protest during the “Bangkok Shutdown” rally in 2014.

 

The Appeals Court reasoned that although the defendant has confessed to the crimes he committed, there was no witnesses to identify him as the Popcorn gunman, although the physical description of the gunman was identical to the defendant.

 

Full story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/popcorn-gunman-acquitted-charges/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2017-06-27

[whatawonderfulday]

no surprise there.

[Bluespunk]

Here we go...

[robblok]

We will see, I hate it when people like this get off on technicalities. Just like more then a few red shirts came free because lack of evidence. Seemed a lot of people on here complaining about the men in black convictions based on similar evidence saying they should not be convicted as evidence was not strong. Now lets see if those same people will say that this guy should be set free. 

 

The cases are quite similar, I was for those red black shirts to be jailed on the evidence and that is compatible to this and want this guy to be jailed on the same evidence. Good thing is he still did not get free. 

[Ricardo]

He confessed, but is still acquited on-appeal ?

 

So is there some doubt, about how the confession was obtained, or what ?

 

As robblok says, both this guy and the the black-shirts should be punished, unless there really are grounds to doubt the safety of their convictions, or actions of the type they allegedly carried-out will only be further encouraged, which IMO would be wrong.

[robblok]

2 minutes ago, Ricardo said:

He confessed, but is still acquited on-appeal ?

 

So is there some doubt, about how the confession was obtained, or what ?

 

As robblok says, both this guy and the the black-shirts should be punished, unless there really are grounds to doubt the safety of their convictions, or actions of the type they allegedly carried-out will only be further encouraged, which IMO would be wrong.

Cases were quite similar, both this guy and those black-shirts where masked... and later confessed with some other evidence around it but no straight identification in the act. Lot of people on the red side where then saying that confessions are not enough  had to be caught in the act ect ect.. now I am waiting for them to say the same here.  For me they are both guilty and happy they are in jail. People firing weapons like this are a danger to everyone. 

[Smarter Than You]

6 minutes ago, robblok said:

Cases were quite similar, both this guy and those black-shirts where masked... and later confessed with some other evidence around it but no straight identification in the act. Lot of people on the red side where then saying that confessions are not enough  had to be caught in the act ect ect.. now I am waiting for them to say the same here.  For me they are both guilty and happy they are in jail. People firing weapons like this are a danger to everyone. 

How about the people who put the gun in his hands and created the environment for him to operate in?

 

"The mythical masked gunman turned out to be just a simple villager and day labourer from Phitsanulok province, who after joining the anti-government protests while looking for work in Bangkok, subsequently volunteered as a protest guard at Suthep’s Rajadamnern stage and, for some in the PDRC, became a quite unlikely figurehead. He was the only one of several dozen PDRC affiliated gunman from the Laksi incident who was arrested and jailed. He also remained the only PDRC affiliated armed militant who was refused bail after arrest."

 

The myth of the popcorn gunman - New Mandala

 

There have been grotesque crimes committed by both sides, if you really want the violence stopped then you must identify the root cause.

The choice is either elections and respecting the outcomes or street mobs and murder.

 

 

[robblok]

1 minute ago, Smarter Than You said:

How about the people who put the gun in his hands and created the environment for him to operate in?

 

"The mythical masked gunman turned out to be just a simple villager and day labourer from Phitsanulok province, who after joining the anti-government protests while looking for work in Bangkok, subsequently volunteered as a protest guard at Suthep’s Rajadamnern stage and, for some in the PDRC, became a quite unlikely figurehead. He was the only one of several dozen PDRC affiliated gunman from the Laksi incident who was arrested and jailed. He also remained the only PDRC affiliated armed militant who was refused bail after arrest."

 

The myth of the popcorn gunman - New Mandala

 

There have been grotesque crimes committed by both sides, if you really want the violence stopped then you must identify the root cause.

The choice is either elections and respecting the outcomes or street mobs and murder.

 

 

Sure as long as people who are elected uphold the democratic system.. no secret votes, no off book programs without any financial information, no amnesties that only benefit one guy, not letting people vote for others, not having MP's receive money from Dubai. Just standard stuff actually. If they keep things neat I am sure people won't go on the streets anymore and any coups will fail. Give them reasons like that and people will go onto the streets and it starts all over again. 

[candide]

58 minutes ago, robblok said:

We will see, I hate it when people like this get off on technicalities. Just like more then a few red shirts came free because lack of evidence. Seemed a lot of people on here complaining about the men in black convictions based on similar evidence saying they should not be convicted as evidence was not strong. Now lets see if those same people will say that this guy should be set free. 

 

The cases are quite similar, I was for those red black shirts to be jailed on the evidence and that is compatible to this and want this guy to be jailed on the same evidence. Good thing is he still did not get free. 

A first difference is that the popcorn gunman was not kept first in a secret place by the military and did complain of having been tortured.

 

The second (which explains the first difference) is that army had also no particular interest to get them convicted, in order to support the claim that the 2010 killings were not the army's or the government's fault.

 

The other is that they did not get convicted of murder. A large part of our debate was about your opinion that they were the ones who fired.

 

About the popcorn gunman, I found a short description of the evidence provided here. You can make your mind.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/aec/30280725

[robblok]

Just now, candide said:

A first difference is that the popcorn gunman was not kept first in a secret place by the military and did complain of having been tortured.

 

The second (which explains the first difference) is that army had also no particular interest to get them convicted, in order to support the claim that the 2010 killings were not the army's or the government's fault.

 

The other is that they did not get convicted of murder. A large part of our debate was about your opinion that they were the ones who fired.

 

About the popcorn gunman, I found a short description of the evidence provided here. You can make your mind.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/aec/30280725

The pop corn man was taken by the police..who was under control of Charmlem.. Who said no torture.. we all know about the police. So bit invalid that comment. 

 

The army had no intrest..but he was taken by the CAPO. There was quite some proof too for the blackshirts.. but sure I expected someone like you to come here and defend those blackshirts but agree with this guys guilt. Shows your bias. Same proof was for the red blackshirts.. sister identifying a suspect and so on. But hey.. its not similar at all. Brother here.. Sister there.. hmmmm 

[candide]

3 minutes ago, robblok said:

The pop corn man was taken by the police..who was under control of Charmlem.. Who said no torture.. we all know about the police. So bit invalid that comment. 

 

The army had no intrest..but he was taken by the CAPO. There was quite some proof too for the blackshirts.. but sure I expected someone like you to come here and defend those blackshirts but agree with this guys guilt. Shows your bias. Same proof was for the red blackshirts.. sister identifying a suspect and so on. But hey.. its not similar at all. Brother here.. Sister there.. hmmmm 

He was arrested during Charmlerm's time but judged in March 2015 under the junta's government. There was no way Charmlerm could influence the judgement The popcorn gunman could have said during trial (as the redshirts did) that he had been tortured, but he did not. 

 

About our debate on the other case, our disagreement was not that they were not guilty of carrying weapons, but that they were the ones who shot (they have not been convicted for this). Don't mix issues.

[Smarter Than You]

34 minutes ago, robblok said:

Sure as long as people who are elected uphold the democratic system.. no secret votes, no off book programs without any financial information, no amnesties that only benefit one guy, not letting people vote for others, not having MP's receive money from Dubai. Just standard stuff actually. If they keep things neat I am sure people won't go on the streets anymore and any coups will fail. Give them reasons like that and people will go onto the streets and it starts all over again. 

Everything you mention the current Junta is guilty of and more.

 

The difference is that for Yingluck to come to power - people only had to vote, for the Junta to come to power - people had to die.

 

What you are advocating is to abandon democracy and the rule of law and have people from both factions murdered in the streets in order to get rid of an imperfect government and replace it with one that is far, far more imperfect.

 

Take a minute to think about that.

Edited June 27, 2017 by Smarter Than You

[robblok]

24 minutes ago, Smarter Than You said:

Everything you mention the current Junta is guilty of and more.

 

The difference is that for Yingluck to come to power - people only had to vote, for the Junta to come to power - people had to die.

 

What you are advocating is to abandon democracy and the rule of law and have people from both factions murdered in the streets in order to get rid of an imperfect government and replace it with one that is far, far more imperfect.

 

Take a minute to think about that.

Think a minute about the fact that your the guy who has kid killers on his side and hospital bombers. In no way do i condone any violence, as you see in my statement about this case. Even if there is a junta it does not justify any killings same if you got a corrupt government like YL's it does not justify any violence. 

[harada]

Surat Thani and large brown paper bags ?

[robblok]

30 minutes ago, candide said:

He was arrested during Charmlerm's time but judged in March 2015 under the junta's government. There was no way Charmlerm could influence the judgement The popcorn gunman could have said during trial (as the redshirts did) that he had been tortured, but he did not. 

 

About our debate on the other case, our disagreement was not that they were not guilty of carrying weapons, but that they were the ones who shot (they have not been convicted for this). Don't mix issues.

Ah ok.. seems logical to me .. they carry weapons dress up in black and not shoot.. about as logical as that this guy is getting off because they can't identify him with witnesses. But yes in the case of the blackshirts there were more so you could argue that some were not shooting.. but seems far fetched.. and a law technicality like here. (why dress up in black carry weapons and then not use them and say some other blackshirt did all the shooting.. easy way to never found guilty. I believe in other countries like the US if your part of a gang and there is a killing your guilty by association then)

 

Anyway, lets hope that this guy is not getting off. 

[Smarter Than You]

17 minutes ago, robblok said:

Think a minute about the fact that your the guy who has kid killers on his side and hospital bombers. In no way do i condone any violence, as you see in my statement about this case. Even if there is a junta it does not justify any killings same if you got a corrupt government like YL's it does not justify any violence. 

You only get Juntas through violence.

Would the bombing in Trat have occurred if elections and their outcomes were being respected?

Would there have ever been a popcorn gunman if elections and their outcomes were being respected?

 

 

 

 

 

[candide]

25 minutes ago, robblok said:

Ah ok.. seems logical to me .. they carry weapons dress up in black and not shoot.. about as logical as that this guy is getting off because they can't identify him with witnesses. But yes in the case of the blackshirts there were more so you could argue that some were not shooting.. but seems far fetched.. and a law technicality like here. (why dress up in black carry weapons and then not use them and say some other blackshirt did all the shooting.. easy way to never found guilty. I believe in other countries like the US if your part of a gang and there is a killing your guilty by association then)

 

Anyway, lets hope that this guy is not getting off. 

In the US in order to be charged with association there must be some proof of it. And in addition people are not tortured (Guantanamo is not in the US).

Edited June 27, 2017 by candide

[robblok]

3 minutes ago, candide said:

In the US in order to be charged with association there must be some proof of it. And in addition people are not tortured (Guantanamo is not in the US).

That is again a technicality anyway.. no way to know if this guy was not mistreated by the CAPO his police. Anyway I had expected this kind of bias responses. So I am not surprised. Again asi I said I hope he does not get off. 

[robblok]

5 minutes ago, Smarter Than You said:

You only get Juntas through violence.

Would the bombing in Trat have occurred if elections and their outcomes were being respected?

Would there have ever been a popcorn gunman if elections and their outcomes were being respected?

 

 

 

 

 

None of this would have happened without the Thaksin amnesty.. think long and hard about that. 

[Borzandy]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

“popcorn gunman” who shot dead a man and injured four other people

No problem for Thailand. (I first thought he shot with popcorn)

[Baerboxer]

3 hours ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

No surprise there. So much for reconciliation huh?

 

Will just make it all a lot worse when the inevitable happens.

 

 

 

No witnesses. So how did the court of first instance convict him? And held pending a Supreme court ruling. So the Appeals Court has kicked it upstairs?

 

Works very differently here.

[JAG]

17 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

No witnesses. So how did the court of first instance convict him? And held pending a Supreme court ruling. So the Appeals Court has kicked it upstairs?

 

Works very differently here.

Unconscious irony?

[retarius]

Open season on red shirts.

[jesimps]

4 hours ago, robblok said:

Sure as long as people who are elected uphold the democratic system.. no secret votes, no off book programs without any financial information, no amnesties that only benefit one guy, not letting people vote for others, not having MP's receive money from Dubai. Just standard stuff actually. If they keep things neat I am sure people won't go on the streets anymore and any coups will fail. Give them reasons like that and people will go onto the streets and it starts all over again. 

Don't know why I bother to post this, because you junta fanboys are so brainwashed that you refuse to acknowledge the obvious, but no one can guarantee the behaviour of who they vote into power. Also, the people are the only ones who should be able to pass judgement on a govts performance when they vote in the next election.

 

It's called democracy. Democracy ISN'T guaranteeing what the voters choice will do once in power. That sort of democracy is impossible and is a convenient excuse used by the military to sieze power.

[robblok]

2 minutes ago, jesimps said:

Don't know why I bother to post this, because you junta fanboys are so brainwashed that you refuse to acknowledge the obvious, but no one can guarantee the behaviour of who they vote into power. Also, the people are the only ones who should be able to pass judgement on a govts performance when they vote in the next election.

 

It's called democracy. Democracy ISN'T guaranteeing what the voters choice will do once in power. That sort of democracy is impossible and is a convenient excuse used by the military to sieze power.

You should have read what i posted.. many of those things are not allowed in real democracies.. and these things are not judged by voters but by courts. 

[jesimps]

3 hours ago, robblok said:

Think a minute about the fact that your the guy who has kid killers on his side and hospital bombers. In no way do i condone any violence, as you see in my statement about this case. Even if there is a junta it does not justify any killings same if you got a corrupt government like YL's it does not justify any violence. 

You must be well connected to have access to all the evidence to be able to state catagorically that YL's govt was corrupt.

 

Or is it that you're such a fan of the military that you assume that because they siezed power, it must be true.

[metisdead]

Posts in violation of fair use policy have been removed. 

 

Some off topic posts and replies have been removed.

[khunken]

2 hours ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

He confessed. 

 

That is how most convictions are made in Thailand. 

 

The reason for the successful appeals and it going to the Appeals Court in the first place is a direct result of powerful friends. Forum rules prevent further discussion. 

Your first two comments are correct. What a pity you had to bring conspiracy allegations into it - if they can't be discussed then don't mention them.

 

The popcorn shooter was hired by the PDRC to counter Ko tee's militia which was armed as well as being protected by CAPO-instructed police. Nick Nostitz, a red shirt sympathiser was there and posted a report, which is very hard going to establish who is who. Even he admitted that Ko Tee & his militia was there at Laksi where the confrontation occurred.

 

The popcorn shooter killed one and someone was arrested. How many did Ko Tee's gang kill over the course of the protests? We don't know as the police made no effort to arrest him. Whoever the popcorn shooter is, he deserves a heavy punishment and the trial is not over yet.

Edited June 27, 2017 by khunken

[Smarter Than You]

1 minute ago, khunken said:

Your first two comments are correct. What a pity you had to bring conspiracy allegations into it - if they can't be discussed then don't mention it.

 

The popcorn shooter was hired by the PDRC to counter Ko tee's militia which was armed as well as being protected by CAPO-instructed police. Nick Nostitz, a red shirt sympathiser was there and posted a report, which is very hard going to establish who is who. Even he admitted that Ko Tee & his militia was there at Laksi where the confrontation occurred.

 

The popcorn shooter killed one and someone was arrested. How many did Ko Tee's gang kill over the course of the protests? We don't know as the police made no effort to arrest him. Whoever the popcorn shooter is, he deserves a heavy punishment and the trial is not over yet.

Why were all these pleasant souls out on the streets on this particular day?

It was Feb 2 2014 - election day.

Why are armed gunmen trying to stop people from voting?

Lets lay the blame at the feet of the people who decided that they were above the law and created the environment where innocent lives where unnecessarily lost.