Former Thai PM to face murder charges for 2010 crackdown

Thailand's former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will be prosecuted on murder charges for the brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters in 2010 that killed over 90 people, officials said today.

Public prosecutors indicted opposition leader Vejjajiva and his deputy Suthep Thaugsuban for their alleged role in instigating others to kill, or to attempt a killing, during the political mayhem which enveloped the country.

About 90 people died and nearly 1,900 were wounded in a series of street clashes between mostly unarmed 'Red Shirt' demonstrators and security forces firing live rounds in central Bangkok.

Abhisit and Thaugsuban of the Democrat party ordered security forces to reclaim areas of the capital and allowed authorities to use arms, said Nanthasak Poonsuk, a spokesman for the attorney general's office.

"Former prime minister Abhisit and former deputy prime minister Suthep would be tried as political overseers of the Centre for Resolution of Emergency Situation," Poonsuk said.

The prosecution review against Abhisit and Thaugsuban was based on a report compiled by the Department of Special Investigation. Nantasak said the report covered the period between April 7, 2010 to May 19, 2010.

In the 2010 protests, the 'Red Shirts' were demanding immediate elections, saying Abhisit's government took office undemocratically in 2008 through a parliamentary vote after a court stripped Thaksin Shinawatra's allies of power.

Tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators occupied parts of central Bangkok for weeks before the army ended the standoff.

Polls in 2011 brought Thaksin's Red Shirt-backed Puea Thai party to power with his sister Yingluck Shinawatra now prime minister.