Supporters of ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra demanded yesterday that the coup leaders who drove him out resign, and called for elections to be held immediately.
The demands, delivered in a letter to military headquarters, came a day after several thousand Thaksin supporters gathered at Sanam Luang, an open park near Bangkok's Grand Palace.
Daily rallies by Thaksin supporters have increased the risk of confrontation between them and the military leaders who overthrew him in September for alleged corruption and abuse of power.
"We want the Council for National Security [the coup leaders' official name] members to resign and hold an election immediately," said Weng Tojirakan, one of the nine rally leaders who submitted the demand letter.
A low-ranking official received the document through a chained front gate of the army headquarters.
There was no immediate response from the military-backed government, although coup leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin said last week he will not resign because he has done nothing wrong.
The protest leaders also demanded that elections take place in accordance with the 1997 Constitution that the coup leaders abolished after the takeover in September. A new constitution is being drafted ahead of the elections set for December.
The demands are the latest effort by pro-Thaksin forces to increase pressure on coup leaders -- putting Bangkok on edge as the capital swirls with rumors of more military crackdowns and coup attempts.
On Friday night, thousands of Thaksin's supporters gathered at Sanam Luang to witness him berating the coup leaders in a recorded video message from London, where he has been living in exile since the coup.
Thaksin denounced the government's decision to freeze his and his family's bank accounts, with more than 52 billion baht (US$1.6 billion).
Kouri Richins, a Utah mother who published a children’s book about grief after the death of her husband is to serve a life sentence for his murder without the possibility of parole, a judge ruled on Wednesday. Richins was convicted in March of aggravated murder for lacing a cocktail given to her husband, Eric Richins, with five times the lethal dose of fentanyl at their home near Park City in 2022. A jury also found her guilty of four other felonies, including insurance fraud, forgery and attempted murder for trying to poison her husband weeks earlier on Feb. 14, 2022, with a
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
DELA ROSA CASE: The whereabouts of the senator, who is wanted by the ICC, was unclear, while President Marcos faces a political test over the senate situation Philippine authorities yesterday were seeking confirmation of reports that a top politician wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) had fled, a day after gunfire rang out at the Philippine Senate where he had taken refuge fearing his arrest. Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the former national police chief and top enforcer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” has been under Senate protection and is wanted for crimes against humanity, the same charges Duterte is accused of. “Several sources confirmed that the senator, Senator Bato, is no longer in the Senate premises, but we are still getting confirmation,” Presidential
RSS