Nitirat opposes blanket amnesty
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The Nitirat Group on Wednesday issued a statement opposing the granting of blanket amnesty as part of the reconciliation process.
The statement, written by Thammasat University’s law lecturer Worachet Pakeerut, outlined the following arguments:
1. Nittirat reaffirms its push to amend the lese majeste law as prescribed in Article 112 of the Criminal Code.
2. Nittirat totally opposes the reconciliation by granting blanket amnesty for all parties involved in the political disturbances in the wake of the 2006 coup.
In the past, the country granted blanket amnesty on two occasions, in 1978 pertaining to the October 1976 blodshed and in 1992 pertaining to the Black May, 1992 incident. But such amnesty unfairly applied to those responsilble for cracking down on the people.
3. Nitirat proposes that amnesty should factor in the following five points:
3,1 No amnesty for state officials involved in the crowd dispersal operations taken place since September 19, 2006.
3.2 Instant amnesty granted to those accused of violating the emergency situation and the Internal Security Act.
3.3 Removing those involved in street protests and faced with criminal charges from the judicial review and resolving their violations via a conflic resolution committee.
3.4 Absolved those ruled by the conflict resolution committee as involving in politically-motivated incidents. Targetting those acted without political motivation for the normal criminal proceedings.
nded the Constitution to include provisions on conflict resolution.
4. In order to repeal the consequences of the coup, the new charter should include provisions to repeal the amnesty granted to coup leaders and bring them to justice. The work of the Asset Examination Committee would consequently be voided, paving way to prosecute the suspects again under due process.
