Prachatai’s case against the authorities for blocking its website during the red-shirt protests in 2010 has finally been accepted by the Civil Court, after the Court’s initial decision to dismiss the case was overturned by the Appeals Court.

On 15 Nov, Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd, former spokesperson for the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation, testified to police investigators on the deaths of 16 people allegedly killed by military troops during the crackdown on red-shirt protesters in April and May last year.

It has been 258 days since the Prachatai.com website was blocked under the order of the CRES. The order to block the website came about right after the declaration of the Emergency Decree on Public Administration in Emergency Situation (hereafter “Decree”). Prachatai.com, which has been online since September 2004, was first blocked on 8 April 2010. The amount of the financial loss, according to the figures that Prachatai has filed in a charge against the government and CRES with the Court of Justice and which is currently being investigated by the Court of Appeal, stands at 5 million baht.  

Over the past seven months or so, the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration appears to have perfected the recipe to make a mockery of truth and reconciliation when it comes to the handling of red-shirt protests and their aftermath, which led to 91 deaths and two thousands injuries.

Army Chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha said that the PAD had the legal right to hold rallies during Parliament’s consideration of charter amendments as long as they did not use violence.  The Emergency Decree has to be kept in force until the situation returns to normal.  He insisted that there were never double standards regarding enforcement of the decree, and all groups had been treated equally, according to an ASTV-Manager report on 24 Nov.