Thai court orders protest leaders to pay for airport closures

Mar 25, 2011, 7:42 GMT

Bangkok - A Thai court on Friday ordered 13 leaders of the protest movement that seized Bangkok's two airports in late 2008 to pay 17.4 million dollars in damages to the state airport authority.

Bangkok's Civil Court found the 13 leaders of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) guilty of seizing Suvarnabhumi International Airport and Don Mueang Airport from November 26 to December 3, 2008, and ordered them to pay the government-owned Airports of Thailand 522 million baht in compensation.

The top PAD leaders include Chamlong Srimuang and Sondhi Limthongkul, who are currently staging another protest against the current government, led by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The PAD, also called the yellow shirts for their favoured protest colours, held street demonstrations for seven months in 2008 to bring down the government of then-prime minister Somchai Wongsawat.

Their demonstrations culminated with the seizures of the airports, a stunt that left tens of thousands of tourists stranded in Bangkok and forced rerouting for hundreds of flights.

The National Economic And Social Development Board, a government think tank, estimated the airport closures resulted in lost revenues of 104 billion baht (3 billion dollars) for the country in terms of tourism and trade.

The airports were reopened only after the PAD announced it had succeeded in toppling Somchai's government after the Constitutional Court dissolved the then-ruling party on election fraud charges, effectively forcing Somchai to step down.

Read more about Demos

Read more about Thailand Justice