According to court testimonies, the six ex-leaders led the protests against the Samak government in a bid to put pressure on the then premier to resign. The first court had sentenced them three years’ jail each before reducing the penalty to two years. Last week, the group, along with three other ex-leaders of the People’s Alliance for Democracy, faced a sedition charge for their scattered protests targeting several government compounds in 2008. However, the first court dismissed that sedition charge against the six ex-leaders and suspended for two years the determination of penalties for the three other ex-leaders. The court cited as the reason for dismissing the sedition charge the fact that the six ex-leaders had already been sentenced to two years in jail term.

Source: The Nation Bangkok July 24, 2017 07:07 UTC