The Thaskin Thread, so we can all remember what he is like

[dirtydog]

LAWYER’S DISAPPEARANCE: ‘PM told me my husband was abducted’
Published on August 10, 2005

Somchai Neelaphaijit’s wife testifies that Thaksin told her he knew kidnappers had taken her husband to Ratchaburi

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra knew that missing Muslim lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit was abducted and brought to Ratchaburi province, the lawyer’s wife testified in court yesterday.

Angkana Neelaphaijit told the Criminal Court that Thaksin informed her about the location of her husband during a private meeting on June 20, but he did not say who kidnapped him.

“The premier told me that government intelligence mistakenly said that a group of unidentified men took him to Mae Hong Son, but according to his personal informants, it was Ratchaburi,” she said during the trial of five police officers charged with theft and unlawful detention. Thaksin also said that he was mistakenly informed that a family quarrel had prompted Somchai to leave home, she said, insisting that she and her husband had no such dispute before his disappearance.

Angkana told reporters after the trial that Thaksin said the government had no solid evidence to bring Somchai’s abductors to justice even though he was aware of the details of the abduction.

To compensate for that fact, she said, Thaksin offered her family assistance. “But I told him that we badly need to know the truth about my husband’s fate. Nothing less would do,” she said.

She said Thaksin told her that he had set up a working group to secretly investigate Somchai’s disappearance. Somchai went missing on March 12 last year.

The five police officers on trial are Lt-Colonel Chatchai Liumsanguan, Lt-Colonel Sinchai Nimpunyakhamphong, Major Ngern Thongsuk, Sergeant Chaiyaweng Phaduang and Corporal Randorn Sithikhet.

Angkana told the court that she believed the officers had abducted Somchai because he disclosed that the Muslim suspects in the January 4, 2004 army camp raid were tortured.

Angkana told the court that her husband had learned about a “threat” to his life after the disclosure and a campaign to lift martial law in the restive south, which has been rocked by violence since the beginning of last year.

“A few days prior to his disappearance, Somchai’s close friend Sant Chokphong-udomchai took him to meet a man who warned him about the threat to his life and urged him to stop defending Muslim suspects,” she said.

Somchai made a name for himself defending Muslim terrorist suspects such as physician Waemahadi Wae-dao, who was recently acquitted of charges of being a member of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

The prominent lawyer’s disappearance raised international concerns about human rights violations in Thailand.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation

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[dirtydog]

Emergency decree sails through Parliament
Published on Aug 29 , 2005



The Senate Monday voted 121 to 38 to approve the emergency decree.

Five senators abstained.

Senators spent a total of 17 hours on Monday and Friday debating against the much-criticised the decree but eventually voted to approve it.

The decree last week won an approval from the House of Representatives.

The Dictator