IN THE 13-year court battle over lead pollution in a Kanchanaburi creek, affected people have been told they must wait at least an additional two months for justice to prevail.

A civil lawsuit was brought in 2005 by eight plaintiffs from the Karen ethnic minority who sued the now-defunct Lead Concentrate Co over pollution in Klity Creek in Kanchanaburi’s Thong Pha Phum district. The suit also named the company’s now-deceased owner, Khongsak Kliebbua, who is being represented by relative Suladda Kliebbua, as a second defendant.

The Kanchanaburi Provincial Court yesterday postponed reading the Supreme Court verdict on grounds that neither the deceased Khongsak nor Suladda had paid the requisite court fees.

Plaintiffs in the case have said they are worried that they will not get full compensation from the defendants even if the court finds in their favour because the lead mining company has folded and Khongsak is dead.

Somchai Armeen, the plaintiff’s lawyer and a member of Lawyers Council of Thailand’s environmental case committee, said the court had postponed reading the verdict because it was unable to send a subpoena to the first defendant Lead Concentrate and the second defendant had not paid court fees of Bt200,000.

“As the court did not receive the court fees from the second defendant, they cannot read the verdict. Therefore, the judge read an order to force the second defendant to pay that amount of money by June 21. Then the court can read verdict on that day,” Somchai said.

“However, if they don’t pay the court fee by that date, the court will not read the verdict and will send the enclosed verdict back to the Supreme Court in Bangkok to judge what they should do, which will further delay the case.”

It was unclear if Suladda or other parties would be held accountable for failure to pay the court fees.

He said the delay would not affect the verdict as the Supreme Court rendered judgement late last year, but it could delay enforcement of the verdict, which could entail forcing the defendants to compensate the plaintiffs.

“Enforcement of the law after the case will be the big issue because the company, as the first defendant, has already gone out of business and the second defendant, Khongsak Kliebbua, already passed away. So it will be very difficult to confiscate money to pay the plaintiffs as compensation,” he said.

Kamthon Srisuwanmala, the first plaintiff and a resident of Lower Klity village, said he was disappointed after hearing the court’s decision because the case had been further prolonged and feared the plaintiffs would not receive full compensation.

“They [the defendants] have time as a benefit. So they are trying to buy more time while our people are still suffering from the lead toxins. We also concerned that we will win a large sum of money in the verdict only on paper, but we will not really receive it,” Kamthon said.

There had been no compensation, he said, even after the plaintiffs won their case in both Civil and Appeals courts, while residents in the area continued to get sick and pass away.

The legal battle between Lower Klity villagers and the lead mining company began in 2003 when the plaintiffs sued the company and |its owner for Bt119 million for violating the National Environmental Quality Act. In 2008, the Appeals Court ruled that the defendants had to pay the plaintiffs Bt29.55 million. Both sides appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court has taken more than eight years to render its verdict with problems in the court’s procedures leading to further delays.

Meanwhile, people affected by a gold mine in Phichit province yesterday submitted a petition to the government’s complaint centre asking Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha to block the renewal of a licence for Akara Resources Plc.

The petition also demanded that urgent tests be conducted on the local environment to help affected people and rehabilitation of farmland.

“We hope government officials will be instructed to put national interest before the interest of a private company,” said Thanyarassamee Sinthornthammatas, leader of the petitioning group.

She said mining workers should receive protection and compensation for work-related illnesses or injuries.

Thanyarassamee also urged the government to ban private gold mining across the country.

Smith Tungkasmit, a lecturer at Rangsit University’s College of Social Innovations, said as well as potential environmental harm, the government should take into account that Thailand does not extract pure gold directly from its mines. “Gold ore will have be to processed overseas, after which we have to import the gold,” Smith said.