Three activists clambered down from the Thai capital's Democracy Monument yesterday after a 17-hour protest against the country's prime minister, police said.
The men scaled the tall monument -- the country's prime symbol of democracy -- on Sunday night.
Police said the trio came down after being told that a royal motorcade would travel by the monument later in the day. Earlier, police Lieutenant Colonel Surakarn Naksing said the three men had threatened to jump to their deaths if there was any attempt to bring them down.
PHOTO: EPA
The men -- two were identified as Boonsin Dejsaneh and Manas Yokthip from the Democracy Campaign Movement while the third was unidentified -- were taking turns criticizing Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra over a megaphone.
The protesters accused Thaksin of criticizing the country's revered king when Thaksin remarked last week that some "charismatic person had wielded an "extraconstitutional force" to interfere in the country's politics. Thaksin didn't name the person, but his words were widely seen as being aimed at the king or his senior adviser, former prime minister Prem Tinsulanonda.
Insulting the monarchy is punishable by up to 15 years in prison in Thailand.
Pro-democracy groups have accused Thaksin of corruption, abuse of power and suppressing the media. Large street protests earlier this year forced him to take a break from politics from early April until May.
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