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<div>Evidence submitted by the Army in the case of the summary execution of a Lahu activist is unusable, a defence lawyer has claimed. </div>
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<div>Although the trial in the killing of ethnic Lahu activist Chaiyapoom Pasae began over seven months ago, the court has not yet received the Army’s CCTV footage, critical evidence which recorded soldiers shooting the activist. </div>
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<div>According to Sumitchai Hattasan, the lawyer for Chaiyapoom’s family, the Army had already sent the CCTV hard disk to the police, but the file cannot be opened.
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<div>The military has refused to reveal footage of the summary execution of a Lahu activist, saying it might confuse the investigation process.</div>
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<div>On 27 March 2016, the 3rd Region Army chief Lt Gen Vijak Siribansop <a href="http://www.matichon.co.th/news/509666">said</a> the military has already sent to the police CCTV evidence of the checkpoint where Lahu activist Chaiyapoom Pasae was executed. The military therefore has no authority to reveal the evidence to the public without court permission.
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By Kongpob Areerat |
<p dir="ltr">Behind the summary killing of a young ethnic minority rights activist lies a deep-rooted culture of impunity and discrimination against ethnic minorities long stigmatised as drug traffickers.</p>
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<p>Soldiers have summarily killed a Lahu youth activist after attempting to arrest him as an alleged drug suspect.</p>
<p>On 17 March 2017, soldiers and other security officers of the Pha Muang Task Force deployed at a checkpoint in Mueang Na Subdistrict of Chiang Dao District in Chiang Mai Province summarily killed Chaiyapoom Pasae, a 17-year-old member of the Lahu ethnic minority.</p>
<p>The soldiers claimed that they found a certain amount of amphetamine in the car Chaiyaphum was sitting in and that he resisted arrest by pulling out a knife before running into a bush.</p>
<p>A Thai court has ordered the Prime Minister's Office to compensate the family of a Muslim teenager summarily killed by security forces in 2012. However, no security personnel have been prosecuted.</p>
<p>The Administrative Court in the southern province of Songkhla on Wednesday, 2 August 2016, ordered the Prime Minister's Office to pay the Mama family 825,500 baht in compensation for the life of their late son, Furakon Mama, the Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF) reported.</p>