Some 30,000 red shirts occupied half of Sanam Luang yesterday evening in a rally to remind Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva that they remained a threat to the coalition government.

Daranee Charncherngsilpakul, aka ‘Da Torpedo’, who has been accused of lèse majesté and held in prison without bail since 22 July 2008, will face her first trial in court on June 23, and trials in her other two cases in which she is accused of leading protesters to surround ASTV and insulting coup leader Gen Saprang Kalayanamitr will follow. Prachatai talked to her lawyer Prawase Praphanukul who agreed to take the case despite their different political stance.

On May 21, INN News reported that according to Pol Col Sompoch Sonkanok, superintendent at Mae Rim Police Station in Chiang Mai, local police have issued an arrest warrant for Kokaew Pikulthong, a red-shirt leader, charging him with lèse majesté offence for his speech to the red-shirt rally on March 22 at Chiang Mai’s 700th year Stadium. Pol Col Sompoch said that police were also investigating whether what Thaksin Shinnawatra had said in his phone-in during the same rally constituted the same offence or not.

Removing their red shirts for fear of violent reprisal and arrest, some 500 red-shirts anti-government protesters refused to quit and re-grouped at Sanam Luang and other spots like Phan Fah bridge yesterday (Tuesday) after the Government House protest site was abandoned and leaders arrested. The atmosphere was tense, distraughtful, as protesters tried to console one another not to give up their cause of overthrowing what they believed to be the elite-bureaucratic control over politics and poor people.

Nakhonratchasima, Thailand — Two Red Shirt leaders announced Tuesday morning they were dispersing their followers, who had been protesting in Bangkok and elsewhere in Thailand for days, and would surrender to police. The two leaders of the pro-Thaksin Shinawatra group, United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, were taken into police custody for questioning.