Democrat Party
leader and former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Friday that he will
report to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) on Dec 13 to
acknowledgethe charge a charge of murder relating to the 2010 protests and was ready to prove his innocence in court.
Tarit Pengdit
(Photo by Thiti Wannamontha)
DSI chief Tarit
Pengdit announced the joint decision of a tripartite team of investigators from
the DSI, police and prosecutors at a meeting Thursday to bring the charges against
Mr Abhisit and Democrat MP Suthep Thaugsuban, who was then deputy premier in
charge of security affairs.
Mr Tarit said
the meeting decided to lay charges against Mr Abhisit and Mr Suthep under
Sections 59, 83, 84 and 288 of the Criminal Code, based on a Criminal Court
ruling on the death of a taxi driver during the 2010 political unrest.
The court ruled
on Sept 17 that the taxi driver, 44-year-old Phan Khamkong from Yasothon
province, was shot dead by security forces near the Ratchaprarop Airport Link
station on the night of May 14, 2010.
Mr Abhisit
insisted that he was performing his duty as prime minister in maintaining peace
and order during the anti-government protests in 2010 and had acted within the
law.
Moreover, the
court had ruled that the anti-government rallies by the red-shirts were in
violation of the constitution, he added.
After the
operations to get back occupied areas from protesters, his government had
opened itself to all forms of monitoring, an independent inquiry was set up to
find out the facts, Mr Abhisit said. He was ready to enter the justice system
to prove his innocence, he said.
Mr Abhisit, the
leader of the opposition parties in the parliament, said the pressing of
charges against him and Mr Suthep was a political action intended to force him
and his party to support the government's proposed reconciliation law to
whitewash a corrupt person.
He insisted
that there would be no negotiations for his own benefit, even though under the
charges he could be sentenced to death. He had confidence in the country’s
justice system, adding that no one is above the law.
Mr Suthep,
former deputy prime minister for security affairs, said he would also go to
meet DSI investigators to acknowledge the charges, as requested.
Democrat list
MP and former finance minister Korn Chatikavanij said on his Facebook page that
the charges being pressed against Mr Abhisit and Mr Suthep had a hidden
political agenda, aiming to force the Democrats to support a plan to issue an
amnesty law.
Mr Korn said
the order issued by Mr Abhisit, then prime minister, and Mr Suthep in his
capacity as director of the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency
Situation (CRES) was constitutional, aimed at bringing peace and order to the
country.
He accused
fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra of trying to use state power
to pressure Mr Abhisit, Mr Suthep and the Democrat Party to back a plan to
issue an amnesty law for himself and his political alliances.
Thaksin had
previously tried to negotiate with both Mr Abhisit and Mr Suthep on the issue,
but failed, Mr Korn added.
Deputy Prime
Minister Chalerm Yubamrung insisted on Friday that the government was not
persecuting Mr Abhisit and Mr Suthep, as alleged by the
Democrats.
Suthep
Thaugsuban, left, and Abhisit Vejjajiva
(Photo by Chanat Katanyu)
The legal
action against Mr Abhisit and Mr Suthep was in line with actual facts and the
rule of law, he said.
The DSI was not
the only investigator into the deaths of red-shirt protesters in the 2010
political violence. Police and prosecutors were also involved and no one
could force them to a decision, he said.
Whatever the
former premier and his ex-deputy would say in explanation to the DSI had
nothing to do with the government, said Mr Chalerm.
The government
was just trying to make known to general public the facts behind the bloodshed,
without any hidden agenda. Offenders must be punished, he said.
Pheu Thai
spokesman Prompong Nopparit on Friday slammed Mr Abhisit and Mr Suthep for
linking their cases to the move for an amnesty law, saying they are different
matters.
He said a large
number of relatives of the red-shirts killed and injured in the bloodshed was
legal action taken against those who ordered the use of force to disperse the
protesters.
Mr Prompong
said Mr Abhisit and Mr Suthep should prove their innocence through
the judicial system, instead of accusing the government of
trying to force them to support the amnesty plan.
DSI director
general Tarit said there was no reason to investigate his own actions as a
member of the CRES during the 2010 crackdown on red-shirt protesters, because
he was just following orders - not issuing them.
Mr Tarit
confirmed on Friday that Mr Abhisit and Mr Suthep had now been formally
summonsed to acknowledge the charges on Dec 12. Both men face a charge of
premeditated murder over the death of Phan Khamkong, a taxi driver shot during
the deadly crackdown in 2010.
The DSI chief
said the date had, however, been postponed to Dec 13 because Mr Abhisit would
be travelling abroad. He said he was not involved in the decision to indict the
two men.
"I was
merely supervising the investigation team and played no part in the
investigation itself," Mr Tarit said.
Asked about
calls that he should also be indicted because he was also a member of the CRES,
Mr Tarit responded that he was assigned only to attend the CRES meetings and
monitor the situation. All of the orders to use force ultimately came down from
Mr Abhisit, as prime minister, or Mr Suthep as director of the emergency
centre.
He said not all
people who were part of the CRES would be charged because most were just
following orders given by their superiors.
(bangkokpost.com)