Ex-Thai education minister to appear before Martial Court

BANGKOK, May 28 (TNA) - The Military Judicial Office has announced that ex-Thai education minister Chaturon Chaisang is to appear before the Martial Court, but his offence for failing to report himself to the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), as he was ordered, will be handled like a normal criminal case in which he can have a lawyer and will be detained during trial. Vice Admiral Krisada Charoenpanich, Chief of the Military Judicial Office, told journalists of the information on Wednesday. Vice Admiral Krisada said if Chaturon, a key figure of the Pheu Thai Party, confessed, there would not be witness examination and a ruling could be announced right away. But if the ex-education minister denied a charge, the trial would take times and the plaintiff would present witnesses in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Code. According to the Military Judicial Office chief, it cannot be determined how many days the process will finish, in case that the ex-education minister denied the charge, but it will be as soon as possible. During the trial, the Military Judicial Office chief acknowledged, the ex-education minister can be detained at a prison of the Department of Corrections for 12 days at a time and the combined detention period can reach 84 days. The coup council has warned those resisting or violating its order are, each, liable to two-year imprisonment and/or a fine of 40,000 baht. The ex-education minister is the first civilian who will stand trial at the Thai Martial Court, after the NCPO has seized the national administrative power since May 22, 2014. However, Colonel Kittiyuth Kittiyutthayothin, Director of the General Affairs Division of the Judge Advocate General's Department, later told reporters he was informed that soldiers who detained the former education minister could not bring him to the Martial Court by May 28 probably because the ex-education minister was just arrested on Tuesday evening. (TNA)