Army to pay to students detained beyond martial law provisions

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MARTIAL LAW

Army to pay to students detained beyond martial law provisions


The Nation

The Royal Thai Army (RTA) will pay Bt505,000 in compensation to two university students who were detained two days beyond what is permitted under martial law.

Martial law allows the detention of suspects for up to seven days only. However, Ismalae The and Amizi Manak, students of the Yala Rajabhat University, were arrested on January 27, 2008 and released only on February 4 in the same year.

On November 22 this year, the Central Administrative Court ruled in favour of the detained students.

The RTA is now ordered to pay Bt255,000 to Ismalae and Bt250,000 to Amizi plus interest of 7.5 per cent per year, which shall be calculated from January 14, 2009 or the day on which the complaint was filed against the Royal Thai Army and the Defence Ministry.

The payment must be paid within 60 days of the final ruling being made.

"We respect the court ruling. We will learn from this mistake and seek to prevent the violation of human rights in the future," Maj General Akara Tiproj said yesterday in his capacity as the spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) Area 4 Forward Command.

Akara said this case would set a precedent for all authorities to carefully study the laws and strictly comply with the legal stipulations.

"We have recognised the importance of human rights. Proper measures will be in place to prevent such mistakes," he said.


-- The Nation 2011-11-28