Court approves warrants for Kritsuda, two other reds over weapons cache
The Criminal Court has approved arrest warrants for three red-shirt activists over their alleged illegal possession of guns, bullets and war-grade explosives, deputy national police chief General Somyot Poompanmoung said yesterday.
They are Kritsuda “Ple” Khunasen, 27, Somsak “Nong” Poonsawat, 45, and Mananchaya “May” Ketkaew, 46.
Police sought the arrest warrants after discovering a large cache of war-grade weapons in Ayutthaya’s Wang Noi district. The seizure led to the arrest of Peerapong, who is also known as Thanin Sinthusonthichat.
Peerapong told police that Kritsuda and Kamol Duangphasuk, a red-shirt activist and critic of lese majeste laws also known as Mainueng Kor Kuntee, distributed the weapons to others to commit crimes, Somyot said.
Somyot said police would seek the extradition of Kritsuda and Mananchaya, who fled abroad and were believed to being staying in a country that Thailand has an extradition treaty with. Kritsuda has alleged that she was tortured during her recent detention after being summoned by the National Council for Peace and Order.
Somyot said Peerapong gave a statement voluntarily. He said he wanted Peerapong to give a statement before the media to show that Kritsuda’s torture claim was false. He said Peerapong confessed that he had received M79 grenades from Kamol and distributed them to his gang to commit crimes, while he had also received M16 assault riffles from Kritsuda but the weapons were not used because they malfunctioned.
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