Thai court closes 2004 mass death case as statute of limitations expires

Communities members hold up signs for victims of the October 2004 incident on Oct 25 2024 AFP-Yonhap — Communities members hold up signs for victims of the October 2004 incident in Thailand on Oct. 25, 2024. AFP-Yonhap

SEOUL, October 30 (AJP) - A Thai court has closed the case of the 2004 Tak Bai incident, where 78 Muslim protesters died of suffocation during police transport, after the statute of limitations expired on Friday without any suspects facing trial.

The Narathiwat court's decision on Monday ends any possibility of prosecution in one of Thailand's deadliest incidents, where security forces arrested about 1,300 protesters and packed them into military trucks, leading to the suffocation deaths of 78 people during a two-hour journey to a military camp. Seven other protesters were shot dead during the initial dispersal.

While the court accepted a criminal lawsuit from victims' families in August and prosecutors indicted eight former military and police officials in September, all suspects, including former 4th Army Region Commander Pisan Wattanawongkiri, had fled abroad.

The Thai government has previously apologized and provided compensation to victims' families, but no official has been held accountable for the deaths, which occurred when approximately 2,000 Muslims gathered outside the Tak Bai police station demanding the release of six detained colleagues in the Muslim-majority southern province of Narathiwat.

AJP