Jatuporn threatens hunger strike if bail revoked

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BANGKOK, June 25 — United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) Red Shirt movement leader Jatuporn Prompan said on Monday that if his bail is revoked, he will walk from the Democracy Monument to prison and stage a hunger strike to protest against what he describes as ‘unfair treatment’.

Mr Jatuporn said he will go to the Constitution Court with his lawyer tomorrow for the Court’s Oct 27, 2010 decision which assigned its secretary-general to file a complaint at the Police Department’s Crime Suppression Division accusing him of threatening the judges. He said the judges should be considered his litigants.

When the Constitution Court judges themselves have initiated the litigation, it should have no right or authority to ask the Criminal Court to revoke his bail, he argued.

Mr Jatuporn charged that the Constitution Court’s move was unfair and unacceptable.

Constitution Court President Wasan Soypisudh said Saturday that the judges did not initiate the request to withdraw Mr Jatuporn’s bail, but that the Office of the Constitution Court acted of its own accord, citing its concern for the judges’ safety.

Mr Jatuporn and other Red Shirt leaders’ speeches during the group’s June 7 gathering were considered as threatening the judges, he said.

Prosecuted for terrorism charges in connection with the violence during the ten week red shirt demonstrations against the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration in 2010, Mr Jatuporn was released on bail after the Election Commission officially endorsed his status as a member of parliament.

However, the Constitution Court on May 18 disqualified him as a Pheu Thai party-list MP because he forfeited his party membership by failing to exercise his right to vote in the July 3 election because he was in jail during the weeks before the general election.

Mr Jatuporn insisted that the request to revoke his bail must be submitted to Criminal Court via the Office of the Attorney-General.