Thread: Wealthy Family Of Protester Promises All-Out Legal Action After He Loses Eye

The wealthy family of a protester who was injured and lost his sight in one eye during a demonstration has vowed all-out legal action against the crackdown on anti-government protesters.


Tanat Thanakitamnuay, a 29-year-old known as “H-iso Luk Nat”, was hurt during a protest in Bangkok on 13th August.


The Thanakitamnuay family on Thursday night announced on Tanat’s Facebook account that he sustained a semicircular cut to his right eyebrow, apparently caused by the impact of a blunt cylindrical object.


His right cornea was torn, his right eyeball was ruptured and his right retina peeled off. Doctors concluded that he had lost sight in his right eye permanently.


The family said the injury was incurred during the protest on 13th August. It blamed the disability on the crackdown on protesters and said authorities had failed to follow the international practice of firing tear gas in a ballistic trajectory.


The family wrote that Tanat had always adhered to peaceful demonstrations, intended only to express his opinions and avoided any act that could lead to violence or damage. The demonstration on 13th August was not violent enough to justify the authorities’ violent response.


The Thanakitamnuay family would take all possible criminal, civil and other legal action against individuals and organisations considered as being responsible, it said.


It said the injury to Tanat was a great loss to the family.


Tanat wrote later on his Facebook account that he would continue to fight for his rights and that protesters should continue to adhere to peaceful action.


He is the scion of the prominent property development family, which controls Noble Development Plc, one of Bangkok’s biggest builders of upmarket condominiums.


Tanat is a former member of the Democrat Party and took part in Suthep Thaugsuban’s “Bangkok Shutdown” street campaign. He resigned his membership when it joined the coalition government formed by the Palang Pracharath Party after the general election in 2019.

Wealthy Family Of Protester Promises All-Out Legal Action After He Loses Eye | Chiang Mai News - Daily News Stories From Chiang Mai & Thailand

It's all fun and games 'til....

Originally Posted by misskit

The wealthy family of a protester who was injured and lost his sight in one eye during a demonstration has vowed all-out legal action against the crackdown on anti-government protesters.

I hope they've paid their taxes and kept their licenses up to date. Gotta feeling there maybe a few audits of their businesses coming.

Noble is big and connected. More than 30 years in the upscale property market. This might turn out to be fun, as he is a former big royalist.

Future planning problems, building controls, invalid property title investigations...the future is interesting

His right cornea was torn, his right eyeball was ruptured and his right retina peeled off. Doctors concluded that he had lost sight in his right eye permanently.

It seems even the most obscure medical mystery is not beyond them.

His chances are halved of seeing the next one coming.

Sira refuses to pay out over Looknut eye injury bet

Outspoken parliamentarian Sira Jenjaka on Tuesday refused to pay out on a 1-million-baht bet over protestor Looknut’s claim to have had been blinded in one eye by a gas canister fired by police, saying the injury was being played up for political gain and questioning the latest medical assessment.


A certificate provided by Tanat “Looknut” Thanakitamnuay on Tuesday said he was “blind in the right eye”, which was not the correct medical terminology, said the member of the ruling Palang Pracharath Party, adding that he will ask the Medical Council of Thailand to look into the credentials of the doctor who signed it.


“I do not believe that is he blind as this certificate claim,” he said. “A letter will be sent to the Medical Council for three experts to make a full diagnosis.”


Sira, who is also chairman of the parliament’s law, justice and human rights committee, on Monday questioned the statement by Looknut’s family that he was blinded in one eye during a protest on August 13, and said he will personally pay him 1 million baht if the claim is true.


“My source told me that his eye can still see by 15 per cent and if it is true then I would like to congratulate him,” Sira said earlier Tuesday.


The family said on August 19 that the former member of the pro-junta People’s Democratic Reform Committee turned pro-democracy protester went blind on his right eye after it was hit by a tear gas canister fired from the police.


The family said the police used excessive force and did not follow international standards, and they will sue all related agencies and all police officers and government officials involved.


Police Major General Piya Tawichai, the deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau and its spokesman, said on August 20 that the police are still not sure whether Looknut was hit by a tear gas canister.


He said Looknut was more likely hit by a projectile from slingshot by one of the other protesters, because the police never fired tear gas or rubber bullets directly at protesters.


Sira on Monday said he has a video clip that shows that the projectile did not hit Looknut’s eye. “Do not bring the issue of just blood in your eye and say that you are blind to gain political benefit while instigating people to come out and break the law,” he said.


Looknut on Monday responded that if he is not blind in his right eye, he will give Sira 10 million baht and then appeared on a TV programme to show the eye’s condition. Looknut said he cannot feel anything in his right eye and he cannot see out of it.


Sira said that Looknut’s blinking during the on-air examination showed he wasn’t blind in that eye. He also said on Tuesday that he will not pay up until Looknut is examined by three different doctors from public hospitals.


The two men agreed on further examination of the eye and they will meet at Sira’s house next Monday to settle the bet.

Sira refuses to pay out over Looknut eye injury bet - Thai Enquirer

Originally Posted by misskit

Sira, who is also chairman of the parliament’s law, justice and human rights committee

Of course he is

Originally Posted by aging one

Noble is big and connected. More than 30 years in the upscale property market. This might turn out to be fun, as he is a former big royalist.

Hmmm.
Does sound as if it all might have promise.