Democrats seek lese majeste against Suda
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Democrats seek lese majeste against Suda

The Democrat party has asked the defence vice-minister to file lese majeste charge against a red-shirt activist for wearing black in the "auspicious month" of December.

Virat Kullayasiri of the party's legal team said Suda Rangkupan posted with photos on her Facebook she was dressing black this month "in memory of the FRA case" even though December is the auspicious month when Thais wear yellow to extend best wishes to His Majesty the King during his birth month, according to Manager Online.

Ms Suda, a former Chulalongkorn University lecturer better known by her nickname Ajarn Waan, is a leader of the Declaration of Justice group focusing on pushing for the release of political prisoners. 

Mr Virat said since her act is in breach of Section 112 of the criminal code, the party submitted on Tuesday a petition to defence vice-minister Gen Roongrojana Chamrasromrun to take legal action against her in line with the prime minister's policy to seriously deal with lese majeste offenders.

Ms Suda was referring to the case involving the Financial Sector Restructuring Authority, set up to clean up bad debts after years of reckless lending that culminated in the flotation of the baht and, subsequently, the 1997 financial crisis.

The Democrat party was accused of its role since it led a government which auctioned off the bad assets originally worth 700 billion baht at 22% of their original prices on average or less than 200 billion baht, mainly to the funds under Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs.

The FRA case was submitted to the National Anti-Corruption Commission and its statute of limitations ended on Nov 30, 2014 without action from the NACC.

The party also said today it would press libel charges against Ms Suda for accusing it of "selling the nation" for its role involving the FRA.

"This is a slander because the party that caused damage to the country is the one led by Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh. The Democrat party actually solved the problem," he said.

In addition, Mr Virat said his party wanted the defence vice-minister to take action against Weerawat Valaisathien, a son of former commerce minister Suwan. Mr Weerawat was charged with lese majeste by his estranged ex-wife but police dropped the case for lack of enough evidence.

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