Yellow shirt's long haul in bid to dodge arrest

Karun was wanted under an arrest warrant in connection with the seizure of Suvarnabhumi Airport in 2008 during a campaign to topple Somchai Wongsawat’s government.
The court rejected a police request to force open the pickup and bring him out, citing that police have the authority to remove him from the car to proceed with the arrest. A locksmith, acting on a police order, later opened the door and police took him into custody.
Crime Suppression Division police joined forces with Buri Ram’s Prakhon Chai district police to intercept Karun at 8pm Saturday as he was driving his pickup truck back home.
About 100 metres from his house, CSD officers showed Karun the arrest warrant and asked him to step out to be arrested but the yellow-shirt leader locked himself in the truck and called his wife.
Karun’s wife came out of the house to negotiate with police to allow Karun to go inside, to take a shower and change clothes first, but police would not allow it, saying the warrant required him to be arrested at the scene.
About 100 yellow-shirt supporters arrived and formed human barriers around the pickup, preventing police from using a truck to haul Karun’s vehicle.
Following a 10-hour stand-off, at about 5am yesterday 200 policemen from nearby district police stations turned out to remove the human barriers, leading to a brief scuffle, but no one was injured.
Initially, Karun’s pick-up was hauled to the Prakhon Chai police station but he refused to step out of the vehicle, so at 8.30am they began the long haul from the district police station to the CSD head office in Bangkok.
Karun’s vehicle reached the CSD office at 12:30pm. About 30 yellow shirts waited there to provide him with moral support.