Arrested PDRC leader released on bail

BANGKOK, April 26 (TNA) - A core leader of the anti-government People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), Sakoltee Phattiyakul, has been released on a 600,000 bail, granted by Bangkok's Criminal Court. Sakonthee was arrested by immigration officials at Thailand's main Suvarnabhumi International Airport late Friday night. Police earlier issued an arrest warrant against the PDRC leader on charges of insurrection, after he had joined PDRC stages on a regular basis since October 31, 2013, aimed at toppling the caretaker government of Caretaker Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. However, the Criminal Court forbade the PDRC leader from leaving the country unless granted permission and ordered him not to incite violence or lead protesters to close or besiege government offices again, as key conditions for his bail. PDRC core leader Suthep Thaugsuban told journalists before leading PDRC protesters to march to Bangkok's Thon Buri side earlier in the day, meanwhile, that the PDRC would fight the case under the legal framework. PDRC protesters then marched from their rally site at Lumpini Park in central Bangkok to Wong Wian Yai in the Thon Buri side with an objective to persuade local people to join the group's upcoming mass rally, expected next month, called the “final battle” against the caretaker government. The PDRC protesters were returning to Lumpini Park. Pro-government demonstrators of the red-clad United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), in the meantime, rallied in Uttaradit Province in the Lower Thai North, as the group has also planned a fresh mass rally next month. (TNA)