PM tightlipped on calls for decree to keep Tak Bai case alive

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra declined to comment on calls for the government to extend the statute of limitations of the Tak Bai case, which is due to expire on Friday.

“I have to go,” she said when approached by reporters on Wednesday to comment on academics’ call for the government to keep the case alive by issuing an executive decree.

The demand was made at a seminar on the 20-year-old held at Thammasat University on Sunday.

On Tuesday, Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, deputy PM in charge of security affairs, said the government’s legal team was studying the possibility of issuing a decree.

However, Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong said on Wednesday that such a decree could not be issued as the Constitution prohibits legal amendments that may benefit or harm certain groups, though these changes can be made for the general public.

A total of 14 suspects were named in two lawsuits, one filed by the public prosecutors and another by relatives of 48 of the 85 slain victims. Yet so far, not a single suspect has been taken to the Narathiwat Provincial Court, where the cases were filed.

Tawee said the police could not yet confirm the whereabouts of the suspects, and though they had learned about their locations, they could still not be found.

Tawee noted that the previous governments had not done enough on the case, adding that it was only under this government that arrest warrants were issued against the suspects.

Tawee added that he is not worried that his Prachachart Party’s popularity will diminish in the deep South if the suspects are not brought to justice.

He pointed out that Prachachart MP and former party leader Kamolsak Leewamoh had revived the case by asking the House Committee on Justice and Human Rights to consider the issue on December 12 last year.

Tawee is the incumbent Prachachart Party leader.