Friday, April 17, 2009

Thailand: Detention extended, new arrest warrants out

By: BangkokPost.com

The Criminal Court has confirmed the right of police to arrest and continue detaining three leaders of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) apprehended in Bangkok after the collapse of the red-shirt protest.

The court confirmed on Thursday that the declaration of a state of emergency before the three men were arrested gave police the authority to detain them without a court warrant.



Veera Musikhapong, Natthawut Saikua and Weng Tojirakarn were taken to the court on Thursday in the morning.

After the court confirmed the legality of their detention, they were taken away by Border Patrol Police Region 1 officers to Pathum Thani province, where they are being held for further investigation.

They were arrested on Tuesday. Unless the state of emergency is lifted, they can be detained for seven more days.

About 200 UDD supporters, most of them not wearing trade-mark red shirts or scarves, gathered outside the Bangkok court in a show of support for the three men.

The courts issued another 22 arrest warrants for red-shirt protesters on Thursday.

The Bangkok Criminal Court approved 10 bench warrants for protesters accused of attacking Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's motorcade in the Interior Ministry compound, and a Pattaya court issued another 12 warrants for people who attacked his car in Pattaya.

These are in addition to the 14 warrants issued for UDD organisers of the raid on the Royal Cliff Beach Resort hotel in Pattaya on Saturday during a regional Asian summit.

Their action caused Mr Abhisit to cancel the summit and declared a six-hour state of emergency in Pattaya and Chonbur while the visiting leaders and their delegations were flown out.

Source: Bangkok Post

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