Court rules two protesters in 2010 protest shot from direction of military

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BANGKOK, Oct 1 – The Bangkok South District Court has ruled that two of the victims who died in the 2010 political upheaval in Bangkok were fired at from the direction of military forces situated in front of a school on Rajdamnern Avenue.

Charoon Chaimaen, 46, and Sayam Wattananukul, 52, were joining the protest organised by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD). They were killed during the military attempt to disperse the demonstrators on April 10, 2010.

The court said yesterday that four witnesses at the site of the shooting confirmed that they saw sparks from rifles and gunshots from the military side.

They told the court that the two men collapsed near Satriwittaya School while a police autopsy concluded that Mr Charoon and Mr Sayam, who were pronounced dead at the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration General Hospital, were shot by high-velocity bullets at the same location.

The witnesses’ accounts were in accord with an investigative report on the direction of the gunfire but it could not be determined as to who fired the shots, the court said.

The families of both men said the court’s judgement was fair and the culprits must be responsible for the incidents which have damaged their families.