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| Southeast Asia |
| Thai supreme court upholds PULO chief's life sentence |
| 2011-12-03 |
| Thailand's Supreme Court has upheld a life sentence against Haji Da-oh Thanam, former field commander of the separatist Pattani United Liberation Organisation (PULO), and his subordinates. In the verdict read yesterday, Da-oh, 54, was found guilty of leading the separatist movement for a time between 1968 and 1998, causing a number of deaths and injuries. His two subordinates also given life sentences are Haji Budo Betong, 74, former chairman of the PULO, and Haji Sama-ae Thanam, 63, former head of an armed unit of the PULO. Another defendant Abdul Rohman Bin Abdulkader, 63, a former PULO member, was sentenced by the the Appeal Court on Nov 15, 2005 to 50 years and the Supreme Court has upheld this verdict against him as well. On Oct 15, 2002, the Criminal Court sentenced Da-oh, Budo, and Sama-ae to life imprisonment but acquitted Abdul Rohman and the other defendant, Yami Maze, 61. Abdul Rohman was later given 50 years in jail, whereas prosecutors had not appealed against a decision to acquit Yami. In this PULO case, two key witnesses were Da-oh's younger brother and a sister-in-law who were former PULO members but quit the movement several years ago and surrendered to authorities before the arrests of the four. Several other witnesses were also former members of the Pulo. Da-oh, Budo, Sama-ae and Yami had confessed to the insurgency charges during the police investigations but they later denied any wrongdoing in court. Da-oh testified he was forced by police to confess to the charge and to assemble a bomb to be filmed and used as evidence against him. The Supreme Court was unconvinced by his claims. Right. The old "I wuz framed!" defense. Meanwhile, ...back at the precinct house, Sergeant Maloney wasn't buying it. It was just too pat. It smelled phony... in Narathiwat province, a female clerk was yesterday killed in a drive-by attack while traveling in a pickup truck with a male driver and his three-year-old daughter. The victim was identified as Arun Buachut, 41. One of the two attackers, who were on a motorcycle, also grabbed Arun's knapsack that contained a .38 calibre handgun after shooting at her at close range. Mr Anuwa, who was driving the pickup truck, said he fled the vehicle during the attack. He told police he was so frightened he left his daughter on the back seat. The young girl was not hurt in the attack, her father said, adding she was crying in the back seat when he returned after the two assailants had left. |
| Posted by:ryuge |