A Thai court has acquitted nearly 70 people of charges related to mass protests in 2008 that resulted in the shutdown of Bangkok's two airports, officials say.
A Thai court on Friday acquitted nearly 70 people of all charges related to mass protests that shut down Bangkok’s two airports in 2008 for about 10 days. The ruling by the Bangkok Criminal Court was the second this year finding that the protesters, who opposed a government headed by allies of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, had not committed serious criminal offenses in their activities.
The court ruled Friday that the airport protests were protected under the constitution because they were peaceful and the protesters were unarmed, public broadcaster Thai PBS and Thai Rath newspaper said. Witnesses to the 2008 protests, including Associated Press reporters, saw acts of violence and intimidation by sometimes-armed guards employed by the PAD, though not by the people acquitted in January and on Friday.
Thaksin’s ouster set off years of sometimes violent contention for power between his supporters and his opponents. The protesters shut down airport operations and defied an injunction calling for them to leave. The siege ended only after a court ruling forced Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat — who is Thaksin’s brother-in-law — out of office. In 2011, the Civil Court ordered the leaders of the group to pay 522 million baht in damages to the state airport authority.
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