Anti-government protest leader nabbed in Bangkok

BANGKOK, February 10 (TNA) - Thai police have arrested a leader of the anti-government People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) in central Bangkok, while the caretaker government has sought the Criminal Court's approval of arrest warrants against 13 more protest leaders. The PDRC leader, Sonthiyan Chuenruethainaitham, was nabbed at the Central Lat Phrao department store in Bangkok on Monday afternoon and was then taken to a border patrol police office in neighboring Pathum Thani Province, where he will be detained and questioned on charges of sedition and violation of the emergency decree. Sonthiyan is the first anti-government protest leader who has been apprehended since the caretaker government's 60-day imposition of the emergency decree in all areas in Bangkok and some areas in peripheral provinces on January 22, 2014. Meanwhile, Tharit Pengdit, Director-General of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), told journalists that the caretaker government-run's Center for Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO) has also sought the Criminal Court's approval of arrest warrants against 13 additional PDRC leaders for violating the emergency decree. Earlier, the Criminal Court approved arrest warrants against the first group of 19 PDRC leaders, making the number of PDRC leaders targeted for the CMPO's arrest now stand at 32. Tharit, who is also a CMPO member, said the CMPO will disclose a list of 136 names alleged to have sponsored the PDRC's demonstrations on February 11 and they will then be summonsed for inquiries about their transactions alleged of financing the PDRC. According to the DSI chief, if the suspects were unable to explain their transactions, they would be charged with supporting wrongdoers and would be prosecuted. Royal Thai Police Spokesman Police Major General Piya Uthayo told reporters that National Police Chief Police General Adul Saengsingkaew, in the meantime, ordered interrogators to quickly handle cases relating to anti-government rallies, including bombings at residences of important persons, violence at Ramkhamhaeng University, a bomb attack at the Victory Monument and a shooting at a demonstration leader near the Sri Iam Temple in the capital's Bangna area. According to the spokesman, the national police chief also ordered subordinates to quickly arrest suspects in lese majeste and election-related wrongdoings. In another incident relating to the three-month anti-government protests, six people were injured in a fresh bomb blast near a protest site on Rajadamnoen Avenue in the capital, initially found to be denotated by a remote-controlled device. A bomb squad rushed to inspect the scene, a traffic island near the protest site of the People's Army to Overthrow the Thaksin Regime, after the bomb exploded before noon. The six injured victims, four men and two women, are workers of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) who were beautifying the traffic island. A car was also damaged by the explosion, while police's investigation is under way.(TNA)