RELEASED: 11 Sep 2019 at 17:44
The Supreme Court maintained the judgment of 2 lower courts on Wednesday, sentencing red-shirt member Arisman Pongruangrong and 11 others to 4 years in jail over the riot that closed down the 2009 Asean Top in Pattaya.
Another offender, Somyos Promma, was acquitted. The court ruled he was just a protester participating, not an organiser of the raid.
The judgment read out in the Pattaya Provincial Court in Pattaya city, where the attack happened.
Thailand was the Asean chairman at the time and the top was quickly cancelled due to the violent attack by United Front for Democracy versus Dictatorship members identified to oust then-prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
In its judgment, the court discovered all 12 accuseds guilty as charged for their function in the violent demonstration at the Royal Cliff Beach Resort Hotel, which required the rash evacuation of local leaders and the post ponement of the top.
Sakda Noppasit, the deputy secretary-general of the Puea Chat Celebration, was just offender at the court for the judgment. The court provided arrest warrants for the others to serve their prison terms.
Among the founded guilty accuseds is Waipot Apornrat, a Palang Pracharath Celebration MP for Kamphaeng Phet province. Pol Lt Col Waipot was seen at parliament after the court read out the judgment however later on left parliament home.
Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, the cabinet’s legal specialist, stated after the sentencing that Waipot’s MP status and political resistance ended with the last judgment since the court did not suspend any of the prison terms.
A by-election would be required in constituency 2 of Kamphaeng Phet, he included.
The storming of the Asean Top location happened on April 11, 2009, throughout the Abhisit Vejjajiva federal government.
The red-shirt protesters required their method into the hotel, triggering issues for the security of the local leaders. A few of them were left by boat and some by helicopter.
District attorneys submitted fit versus the group for defying an order restricting a rally of more than 10 individuals and breaching traffic guidelines.
The Pattaya Provincial Court, in 2015, discovered them guilty and sentenced each of them to 4 years in prison, without suspension. The Appeal Court maintained the judgment 2 years later on.
The other 9 who were founded guilty – in addition to Arisman, Sakda and Waipot – are: Nisit Sinthuprai, Payap Panket, Worachai Hema, Wanchana Kerddee, Pichet Sukjindathong, Nopporn Namchiangtai, Samrerng Prachamrua, Wallop Yangtrong and Singthong Buachum.
The interfered with Asean top was later on restaged in Phuket in June that year, with a strong military existence making sure the procedures were not interrupted a 2nd time.
