Officers Cleared of Attempt to Assassinate Thaksin

[Gaybutton]

The following appears in the BANGKOK POST:

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Officers Cleared of Attempt to Assassinate Thaksin

 

 

Writer: WASSANA NANUAM

Published: 20/08/2009

 

The Bangkok Military Court has cleared three military officers accused of trying to assassinate former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006 using a car bomb.

 

The court on Wednesday acquitted the officers of the charge of trying to murder Thaksin, but sentenced them to jail for illegally possessing and transporting weapons in the capital.

 

Lt Thawatchai Klinchana, Col Surapol Supradit and Lt Col Manas Suprasert were accused of attempting to kill Thaksin on Aug 24, 2006.

 

Lt Thawatchai of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) was arrested in a Daewoo car stuffed with bombs under the flyover at Bang Phlat intersection that morning.

 

He was on a route used by Thaksin every day to get to work.

 

Lt Thawatchai's account of why he was in the car led to the arrest of the two other officers.

 

The court acquitted the three of the attempted murder charge after it heard the bombs had not been wired to go off, that Lt Thawatchai had not held a remote control to detonate them, and Thaksin's limousine had already passed the flyover.

 

On the charges of illegally possessing and transporting the weapons, the court sentenced Col Surapol and Lt Col Manas to six years in jail and fined them both 4,000 baht.

 

Lt Thawatchai's sentence was commuted to four-and-a-half years in jail and a fine of 3,000 baht for giving useful testimony.

 

The three officers said they would appeal the sentences.

 

All three are close to Gen Panlop Pinmanee, who was an Isoc deputy director at the time of the offence.

 

Thaksin dismissed Gen Panlop from the security post following Lt Thawatchai's arrest.

 

Gen Panlop has denied involvement in the alleged plot to assassinate Thaksin.

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In my opinion, just based on what I'm reading, while the evidence may have been lacking on a legal basis, on a logical basis they sure seem guilty to me. Why else would they have bombs on the very route Thaksin normally traveled?

 

I don't approve of Thaksin and his methods, but I see no justification in attempting to murder him. Obviously Thaksin wants nothing more than to be able to return to Thailand and take over the country. Maybe one of these days he'll achieve that. But I can't help thinking of what happened to Benigno Aquino when he returned to the Philippines. He never even made it off the plane. I can certainly envision something similar happening to Thaksin. I hope nothing like that ever really happens. If it does, not only would it be wrong, but all hell would break loose in Thailand.

 

Assassination of politicians has been all too common throughout history. You never see much good coming from it. I believe these officers attempted it, despite the court ruling. If they attempted it, will there be others?

[fedssocr]

well, at least they were found guilty of illegally having the weapons. I was always dubious of the assassination charge.

[Bob]

Amazing Thai justice.....as usual.

 

Not sure if you all missed it but one of their cohorts turned states evidence and testified that, yes, it was a plot to kill Shinawatra and that's why they were in wait along his motorcade route.

 

There's no doubt I'm a cynical bastard when it comes to Thailand's government and elite.

What I believe (no, I can't prove it) is that, as usual, this was all done to protect the higher ups who ordered the hit. There's no way these lower level officers decided on their own to make the hit, they were put up to it.