The lawyer, Sor Rattanamanee Polkla, said this on Friday evening after hearing Songkhla Provincial Court’s decision on whether it would extend the detention period of the 16 protesters. The court approved a police request to extend the detention period for 12 more days because the police were preparing another charge against the protesters.

Sor Rattanamanee said that the police will officially notify the defendants of this new allegation of violating the Public Gathering Act on Wednesday. There will also be a gathering in front of Songkhla Provincial Court on that date to campaign against the prosecution on the activists.

On November 27, the police cracked down on protesters who were marching to the venue of a mobile Cabinet meeting with the intention of meeting Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-Cha.

Sixteen activists were arrested over allegations of blocking traffic, marching on a public highway, fighting with police officers and carrying weapons in public.

“We disagree with this new allegation by the police, because a violation of the Public Gathering Act can be detected at once,” Sor Rattanamanee said. She said the charges should have been filed then.

She also said that the protesters had notified the police before they undertook their march and that police had cracked down on the demonstration before a court notice to disband the protest arrived. For this reason, the new charge was unlawful, she said.

“Right now we are waiting on the police to submit the case to the court and they will have a deadline on January 14, or the court will have no right to detain the arrested activists any more,” she said.

All arrested activists are currently considered as being under court detention, despite the fact that they have been temporarily released on bail. However, their detention period can last for only 48 days after their arrests. If this period is over before the case is sent to court, the court will have no option but to return the guarantee money and release them.

On Friday, the second day of the so-called “seven dangerous New Year holidays”, 576 road accidents happened, killing 49 people and injuring 609, said Karun Sakulpradit, permanent secretary for the Education Ministry.

It was Karun’s turn to address journalists yesterday on the monitored road accident statistics at the Road Accidents Prevention and Reduction for 2018 New Year Operation Centre at the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department.

The accumulated statistics showed there were 1,053 accidents on Thursday and Friday, killing 92 people and injuring 1,107.

Karun said most – more than 42 per cent – had been caused by drunk driving, followed by speeding (23 per cent).

He said most – nearly 78 per cent – of vehicles in the accidents were motorcycles. And most – about 68 per cent – of the accidents happened on straight roads.

Karun said Nakhon Si Thammarat was the province with the highest number of accidents – 25. So far, Phitsanulok, Pathum Thani and Ubon Ratchathani had the highest number of deaths (3), while Nakhon Si Thammarat had the biggest number of injuries (29).

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said yesterday that he would assign the Transport Ministry to figure out how to improve road networks by creating web-like transport routes to avoid traffic congestion.

Prayut said heavy congestion often occurred during long holidays, like the New Year holidays, because most vehicles used the main roads.

The prime minister said relevant government agencies must inform the people of alternative routes so that they could avoid the heavily congested main roads.

“The problem is that vehicles are meeting one another on all major roads. So, I would like the roads to be designed like a web that can be inter-connected,” Prayut said.

The prime minister said it still needed to be ascertained where the subsidiary and alternative routes could be built to supplement the main roads. He said the government might build short roads as bypasses for heavily congested main roads.

He added that the Transport Ministry had already improved several roads in the North and had reduced road accidents at sharp curves over the past three years.

Meanwhile, a total of 727 people were arrested for drunk driving on Thursday and Friday, a senior official said.

Thawatchai Thaikhiew, deputy permanent secretary at the Justice Ministry, said the data had been collected by the Corrections Department, which learned that 1,107 motorists had been arrested and would be given social service punishment because of bad driving over those two days.

Of this, 727 were arrested for drunk driving, 43 for reckless driving, one for road racing, and 336 for testing positive for drug use while driving. He said 70 of the cases happened in Bangkok, 48 in Surin, 45 in Mahasarakham, 36 in Nonthaburi and 24 in Chachoengsao.

THE GOVERNMENT plans to use the special power granted by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to speed up recruitment of officers for the newly created National Water Resources Management Office so as to prepare for floods next year.

The creation of an office taking an integrative water resources management approach was applauded by experts, who said the government appears to have learnt from a series of floods in all parts of the country this year. An integrative water management approach is the best way to handle water problems, they said.

The government’s challenge now is to get the organisation staffed and up and running.

Deputy Prime Minister General Chatchai Sarikulya said yesterday that he would consult with the head of the government’s legal team, Wissanu Krea-Ngam, after the New Year holidays to discuss options for speeding up procedures to jump-start work at the office.

One option is to invoke the NCPO’s powers under Article 44 of the interim charter, said Chatchai.

“As of now, this new agency only has Somkiat Prajumwong as director of the agency, so this new office still cannot operate despite my discussing this issue with the Civil Service Commission Office [OCSC] and other related agencies to speed up personnel recruitment,” said a frustrated Chatchai. “But it was found that it will take too long a time to proceed using the normal process of the OCSC.”

The National Water Resources Management Office was created through NCPO Order 46/2560 on October 25, but remains non-operational and with only the agency director in place. Somkiat said management of the nation’s water resources would see major improvements starting 2018 as the agency takes control of overall water-policy planning and the new Water Resources Bill becomes law.

“Right now the government is working hard to get [the office] ready to work as soon as possible and I expect that by mid-January there will be 80 officers, of a total of 200, appointed to new positions in this office. That would allow the office to start operating,” said the director.

“This will be the new step in the country’s water management,” said Somkiat. “This issue was previously dealt with by separate agencies, who lacked proper coordination. That resulted in duplication of work and mismanagement.”

As part of taking control of all water management policy next year, the agency would oversee related budgets, water-management policy and planning, and project oversight. The new agency will be the central coordinating body for all relevant agencies to work together and share information.

Meanwhile, Seree Supharatid, director of the Rangsit University’s Centre on Climate Change and Disaster, has concluded that the series of floods experienced throughout Thailand in the past year was comparable to the major flood of 2011.

His monitoring of the Chao Phraya River at Nakhon Sawan found that the water volume was 12 to 34 per cent lower than in 2011, but that riverside communities had to endure the flood for an equally long period of time as during the big flood of six years ago.

That underlined the urgency of tackling flood and water-management issues, said Seree.

The Northeast faced larger precipitation in 2017 than in 2011, Seree’s research found. The increased volume of rainfall caused the levels in many reservoirs to rise beyond their capacity, forcing the reservoirs to discharge water beyond what rivers were capable of absorbing and creating a downstream domino effect along the river’s length.

“The floods this year showed that the authorities still lacked proper monitoring and warning systems for the people,” Seree said. “This resulted in heavy flood damages, while the most prominent problem of water management is the lack of risk assessment to select a proper solution for all stakeholders.

“I suggest that water management be done as a whole and not to solve [issues] point by point, which will only push the problem to the another area and cause conflict.”

Prayut said heavy congestions often occurred during long holidays, like New Year holidays, because most vehicles used the main roads.

The prime minister said government agencies concerned must inform the people of alternative routes so that they could avoid the heavily congested main roads.

“The problem is that vehicles are meeting one another on all major roads. So, I would like the roads to be designed like a web that can be inter-connected,” Prayut said.

The prime minister said it has to be found out where the subsidiary and alternative routes should be built to supplement the main roads.

He said the government may build short roads as bypasses for heavily congested main roads.

He added that the Transport Ministry had already improved a lot of roads in the North to reduce road accidents at sharp curves during the past three years.

Fourth Army Area Commander Lt-General Piyawat Nakwanit said Prawit hoped the pawnshops would help local people deal with urgent financial needs.

Prawit, who is also the defence minister, believed some of the violent incidents were a result of the dire financial situation of some locals, who were enticed to cause disturbance in society in return for money for emergency needs such as school expenses when new semesters started, Piyawat said.

Currently, there are government pawnshops only in Pattani province’s Sungai Kolok district and in Yala downtown, the southern Army chief added.

He said the Interior Ministry is now in the process of making it easier to open pawnshops in the deep South, as compared to the long current process.

He said pawnshops in the deep South would be supervised by provincial committees headed by the provincial governors and the private sector would be allowed to invest. However, pawnshops in the deep South would collect fees instead of interest, as collecting interest would be against Islamic teachings.

Fourth Army Area Commander Lt-General Piyawat Nakwanit said that according to his assessment, the security situation had seen improvement this year.

“His Majesty is concerned for the people. The King emphasised that we must ensure security for the local people and we are soldiers of the King. We are ready to take care of the people in all situations,” Piyawat said.

He said his assessment of the improved situation was not based on statistics of number of violent attacks or killings related to the ongoing insurgency. He said he based his assumption on the fact that many shops, resorts and petrol stations had come up along the roads from Songkhla’s Hat Yai district to Yala’s Betong district.

The southern Army chief added that the number of tourists visiting the southern border provinces rose from 2 million in 2016 to 4.4 million this year and many hotels were all booked during weekends.

Piyawat said he was upbeat the southern Army was capable of maintaining security in the deep South, as the Army had increased the number of local security forces in line with the policy of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.

Piyawat said the prime minister wanted the local people to protect themselves so that troops could return to the barracks.

Along with maintaining security, the government is also trying to improve the situation with economic measures, including the economic triangle project, Piyawat added.

He said many groups of militants wanted to turn themselves in and join the programme but they still feared the influence of umbrella groups and were reluctant to lay down arms.

He said those who have laid down arms would be well protected by the Army.

The southern Army chief added that he believed some 10 local politicians were behind violent attacks in the deep South but the Army has talked to them and reached an understanding.

“Next year, the situation in the deep South will be even better,” Piyawat said.

“I have been in charge of the situation for a year and I think I have done a good job,” he said.

He added his troops have already secured 13 districts as safety zones with zero violence.

The government acknowledged more than 900,000 migrant workers had not yet completed their registration process to work legally in Thailand, said spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd. The Labour Ministry said earlier that nearly 2 million migrant workers from neighbouring Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia needed to be registered before being allowed to work in Thailand. That figure is made up of 1.2 million migrant workers from Myanmar, 616,282 from Cambodia and 159,313 from Laos.

The ministry has already completed verification of the nationalities and documentation for 1,041,043 people but could not complete all remaining workers within the original March 31 deadline.

Labour Minister Adul Saengsingkaew had said on Thursday that he would seek Cabinet approval next week to extend the deadline for the national verification process until June 30, but that timing would not work since the new law on migrant worker management is scheduled to come into force on January 1.

Prayut is considering a quick solution using Article 44 to solve the problem, said Sansern.

National verification is compulsory for migrant worker documentation after the current military-backed government issued a new law on migrant worker management, stipulating tough punishment for the use of illegal migrant workers.

According to the new foreign labour law, employers of illegal migrants could face a hefty fine of Bt400,000 to Bt800,000 per migrant worker if found to have violated the law.

The government decided to delay enforcement after panicked migrants fled back home due to fear of tough punishment.

“The prime minister gives importance to effective management of workers to solve the problem permanently,” Sansern said. “Employers and employees should understand the rules and procedures. Don’t panic.”

One-stop service centres in provinces are being put in place to speed up the national verification process, he said, adding that migrant workers must be documented by the end of June next year.

The national verification for migrant workers stirred a controversy in November when Prayut blamed the former director of the employment department for the slow progress and demoted him to an inactive post, prompting the surprise resignation of General Sirichai Distakul as labour minister.

Prayut then exercised his absolute powers under Article 44 to restructure the migrant worker management, setting up a new committee to take care of the task.

The new committee is chaired by the permanent secretary of the Interior Ministry. Its members include officials from not only the Labour Ministry but also from the Foreign and Interior ministries, as well as police.

The court ruled that Phudis, director of The System Plug and Play Co and Innovation Holding Co, was guilty of violating the Criminal Code, fraudulent money scheme laws and anti-money-laundering laws on a total of 2,653 counts, each of which carries a jail term of 5 years, or a total jail term of 13,256 years.

Because the defendant had confessed to wrongdoing, the court reduced the jail term by half to 6,637 years, but the law permits a maximum punishment of only 20 years. In addition, the court imposed a combined fine of Bt663 million on Phudis and the two companies that lured innocent people into investing in bogus training and seminar programmes for various businesses. These programmes turned out to be part of the pyramid money schemes with no actual underlying business.

Attractive promises

Initially, the companies would invite innocent people to join their training and seminar programmes for real estate, international trading and other topics while promising an attractive return on their investment in these programmes.

Participants were also encouraged to invite other persons to join, resulting in a widespread financial damage affecting a total of 2,656 persons who lost a combined Bt5.3 billion.

In addition, defendants also violated the anti-money laundering law by transferring ill-gotten funds into their accounts.

Samart Jenchaijitwanich, president of an anti-pyramid money scheme association, said there were as many as 40,000 victims but only about 2,600 filed charges against the wrongdoers. He expects more victims will come forward after the court’s verdict.

According to Samart, most victims feel the punishment is not sufficient since the law allows a maximum jail term of only 20 years on these charges. A criminal could repeat their wrongdoing after completing a jail term of that length.

He said there was no government agency directly responsible for preventing the spread of illegal pyramid schemes which usually lure innocent people to put their money into bogus schemes in return for attractive benefits during the initial period, after which all money is lost.

The Justice Ministry should introduce specific measures to prevent these bogus money schemes since police and other law enforcement actions are not tackling the root cause of this crime, Samart said.

Pol Colonel Choengron Rimpadee, deputy immigration commander, said the UN agency had already agreed to seek a solution for the family of four adults and four children aged from two to 11 years old but nobody knew how much longer the process would take.

“If the UNHCR’s procedure takes a long time, we plan to move them to Soi Suan Plu detention centre where they will be allowed stay in a waiting area,” he said. “However what I have learnt from UNHCR is that the procedure will not be long.”

According to Agence France-Presse, Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency in Bangkok, has said the UNHCR was “currently exploring potential solutions” for the family but could not provide more details for confidentiality reasons.

The family have been trying to fly to Spain since late October but were charged with overstaying their visas. When Thai immigration officials wanted to deport them to Zimbabwe they refused, citing political tensions in the country.

In November, they tried to board a Ukraine International flight to Mauritania via Ukraine and Spain. When they arrived in the Ukraine, they were not allowed to board their onward flight as they had no proper travel documents. They were sent back to Bangkok and have been staying at the airport ever since. Their plight came to light this week after an airport staffer posted photos of himself handing a Christmas present to the children.