Bangkok: The attorney general’s office announced on Wednesday ( 18 September ) that Thailand will prosecute eight former security personnel for their roles in a decades-long crackdown that resulted in the deaths of 78 protesters who were crammed into army trucks.
The news comes just weeks before the case’s statute of limitations expires on October 25 and is in response to a relevant grievance against seven former senior security guards that a judge accepted next fortnight.
In both instances, just one person has been named.
Attorney-general spokesman Prayut Bejaguran stated at a press event that” the defendants could have foreseen that their actions may have caused the strangulation and incidents of the 78 persons under their responsibility.”
The circumstances are related to a well-known event in the southern state of Narathiwat in 2004 when seven protesters were shot dead and 78 others were crushed or suffocated to death while piled on top of each other in military vehicles.
While originally claiming some activists were armed, the Thai government at the time regretted the Tak Bai murders but denied any wrongdoing.