BANGKOK: Thailand will prosecute eight former security personnel over their roles in a crackdown two decades ago in which 78 protesters suffocated or were crushed to death when crammed into army trucks, the attorney general’s office said on Wednesday (Sep 18).
The announcement comes just weeks before the expiry of the statute of limitations of the case on Oct 25 and follows a related complaint against seven former senior security personnel filed by the victims’ families that a court accepted last month.
Only one individual has been named in both cases.
“The suspects could have foreseen that their actions would have led to the suffocation and deaths of the 78 people under their responsibility,” attorney-general spokesperson Prayut Bejaguran told a press conference.
The cases are centred around a high-profile incident in the town of Tak Bai in the southern province of Narathiwat in 2004 when seven protesters were killed by gunfire and 78 more were crushed or suffocated to death while piled on top of each other in army trucks.
Thailand’s government at the time expressed regret at the Tak Bai deaths but denied wrongdoing, while police had initially said some protesters were armed.
