Legal slip saved Sombat from 2 years in jail
ANTI-COUP activist Sombat "Nuling" Boonngam-anong yesterday survived a penalty for violating an order from the junta that he report to the military.
A court ruled the announcement stipulating the penalties came after the summons request and could not be applied retroactively, Sombat’s lawyer Pavinee Chumsri said.
Pavinee, who serves as a lawyer at Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), explained that the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO)’s order No 3/2014 requesting ‘Nuling’ to report himself did not stipulate any penalty would be imposed if those whose names were on the list violated the order.
And the NCPO’s announcement No 41/2014, which set out the two-year imprisonment, came late after that, she said. So, Pavinee said the court ruled that announcement 41/2014 could not be applied to ‘Nuling’ retroactively.
Although he survived imprisonment, ‘Nuling’ was fined Bt500 for violating Article 38 of the Criminal Code for failing to observe the order, she said.
Asked if this could be standardised – that no penalties would be applied for violating the NCPO’s orders and announcements, the lawyer said no. If the action had come after No 41/2014, the violator would have faced punishment as stipulated under the announcement, which is the law.
All these developments came after the prosecutor took legal action against ‘Nuling’ for violating the junta’s order and the court set yesterday as the hearing date.
