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Thai court: force against protesters illegal
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A Thai court ordered the government yesterday not to use force against protesters who are seeking to oust the prime minister, a day after violent clashes between riot police and demonstrators left five people dead and dozens injured.
The Civil Court ruled that some orders issued by the prime minister and a special security command center under an emergency decree were illegal because they violate the protesters’ constitutional rights.
The prohibited orders include bans on gatherings of five or more people, on entering certain buildings, and on the use of certain roads by demonstrators.
The court also prohibited the government from using force.
But it rejected a request from protesters that it revoke the state of emergency, saying it was within the executive branch’s power to enforce such a law.
The Cabinet declared a state of emergency in the Bangkok area on January 21, after protesters threatened to shut down the capital by blocking key intersections and occupying government offices.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s elected government has been attempting to avoid violence to keep the powerful military from stepping in. Thailand has been wracked by political unrest since 2006, when Yingluck’s brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was ousted by a military coup.
Police have been ordered to exercise restraint and avoid using force, but deadly gun battles erupted Tuesday after they moved into locations around the city to remove protesters.
Five people were killed and nearly 70 injured, said Erawan emergency medical services.
Yesterday, thousands of protesters surrounded the prime minister’s temporary office in Bangkok’s northern outskirts to demand her resignation.
The demonstrators asked officials at the Defense Ministry complex to prevent Yingluck from using it as her backup office. She cannot enter her regular office compound in downtown Bangkok as it is blocked by protesters and some gates have been cemented shut.
The demonstrators also vowed to target businesses owned by Yingluck’s wealthy family.
“Wherever she is, wherever she sleeps, we will go after her,” protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban told the crowd. “(We) must intensify our fight and attack Shinawatra businesses and their funding sources.”
The prime minister and Cabinet ministers stayed away from their temporary offices yesterday to prevent further tensions, the military said.
Demonstrators, who mostly draw their support from the urban middle and upper class and people in the south, want Yingluck to step down to make way for an appointed interim government to implement reforms they say are necessary to fight corruption and remove the Shinawatra family from politics.
It was unclear whether the Civil Court ruling would affect arrest warrants issued for protest leaders for violating the state of emergency.
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