BANGKOK — Thailand’s highest court on Wednesday acquitted two ex-prime ministers and two former top police officers over their role in a 2008 crackdown on anti-government protesters that killed two people.
Former premier Somchai Wongsawat and his then-deputy Chavalit Yongchaiyudh faced negligence charges over a police operation to remove protesters who had laid siege to parliament.
The deadly incident was one of many violent flare-ups over the past decade between their political camp, a populist movement led by former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, and a conservative Bangkok-based establishment.
Police fought pitched battles with demonstrators, some of whom possessed homemade bombs, and fired multiple rounds of tear gas. Two died and hundreds were wounded.
After the military seized power in 2014, authorities put the four men on trial.
But in its ruling on Wednesday nine judges dismissed the case, arguing that authorities had a responsibility to clear the protesters because they had not remained peaceful and that none of the defendants bore direct responsibility for the deaths.
“The protesters surrounded parliament and threatened to storm the building, therefore it was not a peaceful rally. The authorities had to use force in order to clear the way,” the court said in its published summary.
“The court has dismissed the case,” it added.
Messrs. Somchai and Chavalit both hail from the political faction loyal to Thaksin Shinawatra, the self-exiled billionaire tycoon at the heart of Thailand’s festering political divide.
Mr. Somchai, Mr. Thaksin’s brother-in-law, was prime minister at the time of the crackdown while Mr. Chavalit had served as premier in the 1990s.
Mr. Thaksin was ousted by the army in 2006, setting off a decade of instability marked by frequent bouts of political violence, short-lived governments and another army putsch in 2014. — AFP
