Reds urge mass rally at court

A red-shirt group protesting against Constitutional Court judges yesterday called on fellow red shirts nationwide to join a rally in front of the court next week in order to step up pressure against the nine members of the bench.

The Pro-Democracy Community Radio Group made the call for up to 100,000 red shirts to move to Bangkok to join a mass demonstration in front of the Constitutional Court on May 8.
Charn Chaiya, a leader of the group, said the 24-hour deadline for the judges to clarify whether they were properly appointed by royal command had expired, so they must all resign.
The group has been rallying outside the court, located in the Government Complex, for the past 10 days.
Spokesman Sornrak Malaithong said the group wanted to invite red shirts nationwide to join the rally next Wednesday to pressure the judges to resign and to demand the cancellation of Article 309 of the charter, which endorses the 2006 coup and its consequences.
The group will also gather signatures to begin an impeachment process against the nine judges. If the judges do not resign by May 8, they will face an all-out campaign from the group, he said.
However, the Constitutional Court judges came to work yesterday, despite the rally against them in front of the court. They considered two cases related to petitions against the bill that seeks to amend Article 68 of the Constitution and restrict the court’s power in accepting petitions.
In the first case of a petition filed by Senator Somchai Sawaengkarn, the court announced that copies of the petition had been sent to 312 MPs and senators who were accused of violating the charter, although the parliamentarians claimed they had not received the copies and refused to send their explanations to the court.
In the second case, the court voted 5:3 to accept a petition by General Somjet Boonthanom for review, but it declined to issue an injunction to suspend the amendment of Article 68.
Somjet was ordered to send copies of his petition to the 312 MPs and senators supporting the amendment bill.
The court yesterday also postponed to its next meeting the review of a petition against Democrat Party leader and Opposition Leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, saying the judges needed more time to consider the case.
The petition asked the court to revoke the MP status of Abhisit following the Defence Ministry’s decision to revoke his military rank on allegations that he had dodged military conscription.
A company of crowd-control policemen was deployed to maintain security around the Constitutional Court, and the police set up a barricade to prevent people from entering the court’s compound.

Two bills backed
Meanwhile, Suporn Atthawong, deputy PM’s secretary-general and a red-shirt leader, said yesterday that the Pheu Thai Party supported both the amnesty bill of Pheu Thai MP Worachai Hema and a reconciliation bill of Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung.
Worachai’s bill, which has been put on the House’s top agenda for deliberation in the next parliamentary session, is aimed at absolving ordinary red-shirt people from crimes committed during the protests.
However, Chalerm’s bill is aimed at granting amnesty to all sides, including the yellow-shirt movement and former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Suporn said it was possible that Chalerm’s bill could be deliberated along with Worachai’s draft.
Abhisit yesterday called on the general public to come out to send a strong message to the government that ordinary citizens disagreed with the plan to grant amnesty to Thaksin so that he could go scot-free and get his Bt46 billion in seized assets back.
He said Thaksin had sent a clear signal to his red-shirt supporters and Pheu Thai members that he wanted Chalerm’s bill to be enacted so that he could get the assets back.
The former PM said Thaksin’s recent Skype video-call to a Pheu Thai meeting clearly indicated that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was doing everything she could to whitewash her brother and help him get the assets back. Parts of the seized assets also belonged to Yingluck, he added.