Police catch 1st PDRC leader

11 กุมภาพันธ์ 2557

Sonthiyan Chuenruthainaitham, one of 19 anti-government protest leaders on the authorities? wanted list, was nabbed by police yesterday near Central Department Store at Lat Phrao.

Please join us on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/bangkokpostlearning

Sonthiyan Chuenruthainaitham (inset) is the first PDRC captured by police and held at the Regional Border Patrol Police Division 1 in Khlong Luang district, Pathum Thani. WISIT THAMNGERN

PDRC leader nabbed near top city hotel

Wanted leader offers police no resistance

Post Reporters

Sonthiyan Chuenruthainaitham, one of 19 anti-government protest leaders on the authorities’ wanted list, was nabbed by police yesterday near Central Department Store at Lat Phrao.

Mr Sonthiyan, a former executive of T-News agency and satellite television, is accused of violating the emergency decree.

The government invoked the decree on Jan 22 to deal with supporters of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) who have blockaded a number of city roads to force the ouster of the Yingluck Shinawatra administration.

Police said they spotted Mr Sonthiyan walking alone at the Centara Grand Hotel adjacent to the shopping mall during lunch time.

They then moved in for the arrest. Mr Sonthiyan put up no resistance, said assistant national police chief Winai Thongsong, in charge of the arrest team.

Mr Sonthiyan was the only PDRC core leader who did not stay at the main rally sites in Bangkok, according to Chalerm Yubamrung, head of the Centre for Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO).

He is now being detained at the Regional Border Patrol Police Division 1 in Khlong Luang district, Pathum Thani. Police are allowed to detain him for a maximum of seven days without formally pressing charges against him.

The location has been set aside as a temporary detention centre for PDRC leaders since the Criminal Court approved warrants for their arrest on Feb 5 at the request of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI).

According to the DSI, Mr Sonthiyan and other suspects have broken the emergency decree which empowers the authorities to ban political gatherings by five people or more, impose curfews, censor the media and declare parts of the city off-limits to the public.

DSI chief Tarit Pengdith alleged Mr Sonthiyan was second in command of the PDRC after Mr Suthep and was the “brains” of the PDRC in planning the anti-government movement, holding protest campaigns and handling its public relations.

Observers say it is hard to tell what immediate impact Mr Sonthiyan’s arrest will have on the protest movement, though it was certain to hurt leaders’ morale.

The arrest prompted Mr Suthep to ask PDRC co-leaders to stay at rally sites instead of hotels or safe houses to avoid being arrested by authorities.