Court upholds jail terms for South insurgents
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The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the life imprisonment handed to the former head of Patani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo) and three members of the group, as well as the 50year term given to another convict.
The judges dismissed the defendants’ appeal that their confessions to violent crimes, treason, kidnapping and planting explosives were made under duress.
In response to their plea for a lighter sentence, the judges said the defendants’ actions had resulted in many deaths and injuries, not including the disturbance they had caused by launching bomb attacks for a year, and that they did not deserve any leniency.
Haji Daoh Thanam, Haji Betong, Haji Samae Ismael Gaddafi and Haji Maseh were sentenced to death by the Criminal Court in 2002, but it was commuted to life imprisonment by the Court of Appeals in November 2005.
Audul Rahman was initially deemed innocent by the Criminal Court, but later found guilty by the Court of Appeals and sentenced to death. The court then commuted his sentence to 50 years in prison because he was cooperative.
The verdict was read out to Audul Rahman yesterday, while the other defendants had heard about their sentences during a court session on September 21 in Songkhla, where they were being detained.
