However, an NACC panel is expected to reach a conclusion on the charges and on the 2010 red-shirt crackdown case this month, Pol General Watcharapol Prasarnratchakit said.Former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat and three others are accused of malfeasance in connection with the crackdown on People's Alliance for Democracy protesters in October 2008. Two people died and many were injured when police used tear gas to clear protesters who had blockaded Government House to prevent Somchai from entering.Somchai and the other accused have presented new evidence to the NACC and called on the agency to drop the charges.Watcharapol said that the NACC had not yet examined the new evidence, having decided the case should be deliberated alongside the one relating to the 2010 crackdown.In that case, the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) petitioned for the NACC to reinstate charges against former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and other senior figures who in 2010 allegedly approved military action against civilian protesters, which saw scores killed and thousands injured. The agency earlier had dismissed the case.Watcharapol said the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) was pursuing legal action and an investigation independent of the UDD's petition.He added that both cases should be discussed jointly so that the panel could compare the details of each. Both sides had pleaded with the NACC for justice and the cases shared a similar context, he added.The NACC would consider whether petitioners had presented new evidence, Watcharapol said, adding that it was unlikely that the agency would reconsider a case unless such evidence had emerged.

Source: The Nation Bangkok September 07, 2016 15:22 UTC