The Ubon Ratchathani Court on Thursday has denied two bail requests of the red-shirt detainees, who were mistakenly detained and partially paralysed, for the third time while another 19 detainees have already been denied bail twice and still remained behind bars.
The court decision was delivered while the Pheu Thai's No.1 party list candidate Yingluck Shinawatra was campaigning in Ubon Ratchathani and Mukdahan for the 3 July general election.Over 50 core leaders and 'small' supporters of the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) in the two provinces were still fighting court cases that followed the end of the protest crackdown in May last year. In Ubon Ratchathani only, there were 21 who remained behind bars as the court has turned down their bail requests twice.
On Wednesday, two of the 21 Ubon detainees, the 52-year-old Thanusil Thanuthong, and the 60-year-old Khamploy Namee, requested bail for the third time citing the reason that Thanusil was wrongly-identified as the wanted person while Khamploy needed medical treatment for stress and half-paralyze body.
Lawyers of the two detainees cited a testimony given to the Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand in April by Pol Col Aiyasoon Singhanat, Ubon Ratchathani deputy police commander, that the police authorities arrested a wrong person due to the arrest warrant issued upon a still photograph. It was a brother of Mr Thanusil who was in the picture, not him.
Mr Khamploy was sent from the prison to an outside hospital due to his severe stress that made him half-paralysed. During June 6 to 14 stay at the Sappasitprasong hospital, he was diagnosed that weakened brain veins have caused immobile limbs. During the hospital treatment, he was also chained to bed.
However, the court has refused the bail requests, saying that the senior police officer testimony was not included in the court files while Mr Khamploy condition should be getting better as the hospital released him back to the prison.
Relatives of the two detainees were disheartened by the bail refusal but the lawyers said they would still submit the bail requests.
Teerapon Anmai, Ubon Ratchathani's lecturer on communication arts, said he felt sorry for the detainees who should have been receiving the basic rights to defend themselves in a normal circumstance, not behind bars.
"This has raised some questions whether the much-said double standards in justice exist or not," said Mr Teerapon, adding that political parties have yet to speak out how they would address the problems of those non-VIP red-shirt masses in legal troubles.
The lecturer dismayed that while Pheu Thai has kept quiet on how to deal with the trauma and physical sufferings of those "small people" who actually supported them, the ruling party Democrat has simply pledged the innocent would be helped but the reality remained that the "scapegoat" in the violence were still locked up.
Ubonkan Amornsin, aka DJ Sao Fang Khong, said the Pheu Thai politicians in the province were quite indifferent to the red-shirt masses as they were afraid to be linked to the accused terrorists and culminating to potential party dissolution again.
It took the Pheu Thai party some five months before starting to work in collaboration with its affiliate UDD to help the protesters and detainees in provinces.
Ms Ubonkan, 38, herself was fleeing for some few months after the authorities confiscated her community radio station which was one of the devoted facilities relaying the information from Bangkok and in the Northeast region to the red-shirt listeners.
She was now defending herself on charges of owning and operating a communications tool that de-stablising the national security.
"Different pattern of mindsets between us and them (Pheu Thai politicians), so when they were asked recently by the party to assist the people, they just did not know what to do where to start," said the DJ with seven-year experience.
With as many as 400 arrests were issued right after the crackdown, the red-shirt masses were very disheartened. Many core leaders including DJ Toy (Pichet Tabudda) were also arrested, some fled including me. Nobody was there to help the marginalised vulnerable people," Ms Ubonkan conceded.
Now the bail money and lawyer team provided in collaboration between the UDD and Pheu Thai were put to help the provincial detainees. And with the increasing popularity of Yingluck the masses were regrouped and cheered up again, she said.
They were mobilised to cheer Ms Yingluck presence yesterday and this evening, but they did not know how to communicate with the politically-hierarchical executives or the politicians in their constituencies to bring to her attention about their plight, said Ms Ubonkan.
"The politicians still hinder us the full access to master Yingluck. We do not want to bother or worry about the disagreements with the Pheu Thai politicians here as we look at the longer-term goal of winning, so as to bring back our master (Thaksin) home," she said.
But the red-shirt DJ emphasised that the grievances of the UDD supporters who lost their loved ones or who remained in detention or missing had to be fully addressed no matter who was the government.
"Even if Pheu Thai is a ruling party, they have to be grateful to the Red-Shirted supporters to install them into the government. We will not allow Pheu Thai to reconcile easily with others who caused us troubles. Wrongdoers and killers must be brought to justice, and names and fames must be re-installed to those who are accused of the harsh offence," Ms Ubonkan said.
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