Akekasit Man-ngam, 19, was arrested under the Emergency Decree on the night of 14 May, when he was helping a red shirt direct traffic near Din Daeng intersection.  He is now serving a one-year jail term.

‘He was on his way home at Din Daeng from his work at a Bangkok Metropolitan Authority wastewater plant.  They were burning rubber tyres at the intersection.  There were no buses running, so he had to walk.  Akekasit then went to help a red shirt who was directing traffic.  His younger brother called on him not to do this because it was dangerous, but he did not listen.  After a while, he was put in a neck lock by a motorcycle taxi driver, and was taken to the military,’ said his mother Thaworn Kansang, 38.

The arrest took place at around 10 pm on 14 May.  Akekasit was one of many people who were arrested in the run up to the final military crackdown on 19 May and did not have any means to help themselves.  The Phuea Thai Party’s legal assistance was insufficient, and reached only a small number.   The National Human Rights Commission made visits and heard their demands for legal assistance, but nothing happened.  Many were forced to confess or pleaded guilty, and were quickly sentenced by the courts.

Thaworn said that after her son was arrested, she complacently thought that it would not be serious.  There might have been a misunderstanding, and her son would probably be released soon.  She and her family members, all employed by a wastewater plant company, just went on working for their daily wages.

But almost a week passed, and still he did not return.  She asked a friend to ask the police at Din Daeng Police Station, and was told that he had been sent to the Border Patrol Police Headquarters.  She went there, but was told that his name was not on the list.  She cried.  She made phone calls to the courts, but it was in vain.  She knew nobody to turn to.  Then someone told her to contact the Phuea Thai Party for help.  About a month later, a Phuea Thai MP called her to inform her that her son was detained at Khlong Prem Prison.

On her first visit to the prison, she asked him what charges he had been arrested on, and was told that soldiers forced him to confess to the charge of blocking traffic, threatening to shoot him dead if he did not comply.  He told his mother that the soldiers slapped his face with guns.

According to the public prosecutor’s indictment, he was arrested on 16 May during the day, not on the night of 14 May, as his mother noted on her calendar.  He was alleged to have joined others to instigate unrest by bringing tyres to burn in front of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board in Din Daeng, blocking soldiers from entering the area, and hurling objects at the troops.

On 17 May, Dusit Municipal Court ruled that he was guilty as charged.  It said that he confessed to the crime, and deserved to have his sentence commuted by half.  But since at that time the riots and unrest were still continuing in the same area and the same crimes were being committed, the court decided to give him a severe punishment of one year in prison.

Akekasit did not finish primary school or Grade 6, because he was too dull.  He could not write well, so he asked other inmates to write to his mother for him.  In one of the letters, he grumbled that his family members had hardly visited him in prison and he suffered from migraines. 

Thaworn told her son that he had to put up with it as she had no money for any legal proceedings.  She hopes that her son will receive leniency on the occasion of the King’s birthday on 5 Dec.

Akekasit worked at the same wastewater plant as his mother, and earned about 5,000 baht per month, while his mother receives about 6,000 baht.  His mother said he gave his family about 4,000 baht a month for expenses and instalments on a refrigerator and a motorcycle.  He did not drink or smoke, and was always obedient to his mother.

She said that she and her son supported the red shirts and had always followed the news about them on television after work.

‘I’m also a red shirt, but I never went to the rallies, just cheering them on TV.  I have to work.  My children are in school.  But Akekasit is a quiet person.  He was not much interested in politics.  We watched TV together, and he said to me that he was sympathetic to the red shirts.  Before he was arrested, he called me and said that he was going to help a red shirt.  I told him not to go, but he didn’t listen,’ she said.