Nakhon Phanom official returns to work after Tak Bai case expires
Interior minister says the assistant district chief cannot be fired because he was only gone for seven days and had applied for leave before the arrest warrant was issued
A Nakhon Phanom assistant district chief, one of the 14 defendants named in two Tak Bai lawsuits, returned to work the day after the case expired as of midnight on Friday.
Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Tuesday that Wissanu Lertsongkhram, assistant chief of Tha Uthane district, could not be fired because he was not absent from work for 15 days at a go.
Wissanu was among the eight persons the public prosecutors held responsible for the death of 78 protesters in Tak Bai district on October 25, 2004.
The 78 protesters were suffocated to death when hundreds of them were crammed into 25 army trucks to be shifted to an army base in Pattani more than 100 kilometres away.
Wissanu was among the seven drivers in whose trucks the protesters suffocated.
The other defendant named in the public prosecutors’ case was General Chalermchai Wiroonphet, former commander of the 5th Infantry Division.
Chalermchai was held responsible for the deaths because he had only provided 25 trucks, which resulted in so many getting suffocated.
Apart from the 78, seven others were also killed during the crackdown on the protest.
While the public prosecutors decided to charge only those responsible for the 78 deaths, the relatives of 48 victims filed a lawsuit against seven defendants, holding them responsible for the deaths of all 85 protesters.
Chalermchai was named in both lawsuits, bringing the total number of defendants in both suits to 14. Not one defendant responded to the charges as of midnight on Friday, when the 20-year statute of limitations on the case was declared to have expired.
Meanwhile, it was reported that Wissanu had applied for his annual leave from October 15 to 18, but after his boss learned of his arrest warrant, his leave was cancelled.
However, Wissanu could not be contacted until he returned to work on the morning of October 26.
On Monday, a reporter contacted Wissanu for comments at his office at Tha Uthane district, but he refused to comment only saying he was just a truck driver at the time.
Separately, the Nakhon Phanom provincial administration explained that when a civil servant is absent for less than 15 days he cannot be fired. The most it can do is launch a disciplinary probe and the maximum penalty would only be a salary cut.
When asked to comment on Wissanu’s case, Anutin said he had told his ministry’s permanent secretary to investigate
When asked to comment on the case of the assistant district chief, Anutin said he had told the Interior permanent secretary to look into it.
He said he had learned that Wissanu was absent from work for only seven days and he had applied for leave before the court issued an arrest warrant against him. He said the district chief had cancelled the leave after Wissanu’s arrest warrant was issued.
Anutin said the investigators will ask Wissanu to explain why he did not report to work after his leave was cancelled.
The interior minister also said that Wissanu could not be punished beyond what was allowed by regulations and law.
Since Wissanu’s rank is lower than C9, the interior minister cannot interfere in his transfer, adding that this power only lies with the permanent secretary. He responded to a reporter asking if Wissanu should be shifted back to Tak Bai district.
