Thailand arrests key protest leader

Thai authorities have arrested key anti-government protest leader upon his arrival from the United States.

Immigration police detained Sakhontee Phattiyagul at Bangkok’s international airport on charges of insurrection and inciting unrest, said Director-General of Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation Tharit Pengdit.

Later on Saturday, Thai media reported that a court allowed Sakhontee’s release on USD 18,600 bail.
Sakhontee, who is a leader of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee, is also facing charges of trespassing and obstruction of general elections in February.

People’s Democratic Reform Committee has been staging violent anti-government protests in Bangkok since November, calling on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down.

In December 2013, Sakhontee led protesters to storm the building of broadcaster Thai PBS.

Thailand was hit with unrest in November last year when the ruling party widened an amnesty bill that would include premier’s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who is facing corruption charges.

Opponents see the premier as a proxy for her elder brother, a former prime minister toppled in a coup in 2006. The ex-premier has been in self-exile since 2008 to avoid a two-year prison sentence.

Months of anti-government protests has left at least 25 people dead and hundreds more wounded in Thailand.