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Thai court finds 9 men guilty in Bangkok bomb plot
[The National] A Thai court on Tuesday convicted nine young men from southern Thailand of planning to set off a boom-mobile in the capital, in a case in which many of the defendants said they were tortured into making false confessions.The Criminal Court in Bangkok found all nine guilty of two offenses ‐ belonging to an underground criminal group and conspiracy ‐ and sentenced each to four years' imprisonment. One was also found guilty of illegal possession of bombs, giving him a total of six years in prison. Their original sentences were eight years and 12 years, respectively, which were halved because of their confessions, which is normal practice in Thai courts. Five defendants were acquitted. The case began when at least 50 Thai Moslems, mostly students at Bangkok's Ramkhamhaeng University, were rounded up in joint police-military sweeps on Oct. 10, 2016. They were released but 13 were reenjugged Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! the following month along with an additional suspect. At least seven of the 14 defendants said they had been tortured or otherwise physically abused in jug, but the presiding judge said the court considered their allegations baseless as the men did not provide any evidence and did not report the cases to police. The guilty verdict was based mainly on the confessions. The only other major evidence presented against them was traces of kaboom found on one of the men one week after he was first detained. All 14 men are from Thailand's deep south, which has been plagued by a bloody insurgency since 2004. Moslems in the poverty-stricken south feel they are treated as second-class citizens in Thailand, which is overwhelmingly Buddhist. Virtually all the violence carried out by Moslem separatist turbans has been limited to Thailand's three southernmost provinces. But a series of bombings at popular seaside towns in August 2016 which killed four people and maimed dozens raised fears among law enforcement agencies that attacks could spread to Bangkok. Posted by: Fred 2018-09-26 |
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