Thread: Yellow shirt protester sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for crashing

Thai police must be thrilled.

Yellow shirt protester sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for crashing truck at police in 2008

The Supreme Court today reversed the life imprisonment sentence handed down by the Appeals Court on a yellow shirt anti government protester for crashing his vehicle into a group of anti-riot police in 2008.
The highest court instead sentenced him to four years in prison but commuted to two years and eight months for the offence.

The yellow shirt protester Preecha Tricharoon was escorted by the corrections officials to hear the ruling of the Supreme Court at the Criminal Court this morning after he appealed the life sentence to the highest court.

Preecha was arrested in October 7, 2008 after he rammed his pickup truck into a group of anti riot police during the anti government rally called by the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) to protest the Somchai Wongsawat government in front of the Parliament. Five officers were injured in the incident.

The Criminal Court or the first court sentenced him to three years in prison but suspended the prison term to two years instead after considering that it was his first criminal offence and he was blinded on one eye from injuries suffered during the dispersal of the protest rally by police.

But the ruling was appealed by the state prosecutor to the Appeals Court which overruled the first court’s suspension sentence and replaced with life imprisonment.

However the Appeals Court commuted the life sentence by one third to 33 years and 12 months after considering his testimonies were useful to the case.

Today the highest court reversed the lower court’s life sentence reasoning that since Mr Preecha joined the rally which some rallyist were armed, he was then guilty of illegal assembly of more than 10 persons.

The highest court also said as the anti riot police were moving in to disperse the PAD protesters, some police officers also showed provocative acts to enrage protesters which the court said this was an act of power abuse.

It said that since the convicted was also injured and had his right eye blinded, it was justified for him to get angry and committed the crime.

The highest court disagreed with the Appeals Court’s ruling and reversed the sentence to four years in prison for the offence. But it commuted by one third to two years and eight months, and added eight more months for illegal assembly.

In total he will serve two years and eight months for ramming his vehicle into the police that injured five officers, plus eight more months for illegal assembly.

Yellow shirt protester sentenced to two years and eight[at]months in prison for crashing truck at police in 2008 - Thai PBS English News

O.k so if you are protesting and a representative of the government , either police or presumably army , does something to stop you and you get hurt and then get angry , attempted murder is understandable and you should get a light sentence.

Hmmm.......might be a few redshirts who might want to use this as a defense if precedent meant anything here ........ Which of course it doesn't.

Different law for Red shirts...

If it was a red shirt he'd probably be som tam now.