Court drops treason charges against PAD leaders

Written by Writer on Thursday, October 9th, 2008

Court drops treason charges against PAD leaders

PAD leaders will surrender to police to defend other charges : Sondhi

The Appeal Court on Thursday ruled in favour of leaders of People’s Alliance for Democracy by dropping treason charges against them.

The Court said the support evidence of the treason charges filed by police against nine PAD leaders are vague.

However arrest warrant against them for conspiring with more than 10 people to cause disturbances or physical harms are still intact.

Upon learning the court’s decision, Sondhi Limthongkul, a PAD leader, said he and other leaders are ready to surrender to police on the remaining charges. They are willing to fight other charges, except that of treason which they deem unjustified. They will ask for be freed on bail, Sonthi said.

The defence team of the PAD argued in the appeal against the treason charge that the police’s warrants to arrest nine PAD leaders were lack of evidence to substantiate the charge for treason. In the appeal, the defence contended that police acted suspiciously to complete the questioning and subsequently the report within one day.

It states that the arrests are unwarranted because the activities of the nine PAD leaders are part of political activism as sanctioned by the Constitution and that police could questioned the nine at anytime without the warrants. It further argues that police have exaggerated the charge for treason without sufficient evidence to back up.

Two PAD leaders, who also faced the same charges, have been arrested last week. A PAD lawyer said earlier in regard to two PAD leaders in remand the defence team will apply for bail after the treason charge was lifted.

Other PAD leaders were Pipop Thongchai, Somkiart Pongpaiboon, Somsak Kosaisuk, Suriyasai Katasila, Amorn Amornrattananont and Therdpoom Chaidee.