The Defence Ministry and Army have agreed, under a civil court settlement, to pay compensation to the family of Yapha Kaseng, an imam who was killed in a military camp in Narathiwat in 2008.
On 20 July, Nima Kaseng, Yapha’s wife, and her three children agreed to settle their civil lawsuit against the Defence Ministry, the Royal Thai Army and the Royal Thai Police at the Civil Court in Bangkok as a result of the court’s mediation.
Yapha Kaseng (www.bangkokbiznews.com)
The defendants stated to the court that the action of the three defendants in this case, which had led to Yapha’s death, was within the scope of law according to the situation at the time.
According to their examination of the event and facts, it has been found that Yapha and his family are not involved with the insurgency in the south.
The defendants said that they felt sorry for what had happened.
The Defence Ministry and the Royal Thai Army agreed to pay the plaintiffs 500,000 baht for damages to the reputation of the deceased, 87,000 baht for his funeral, and 4,624,000 baht as compensation to the plaintiffs, totalling 5,211.000 baht.
The 56-year-old Muslim religious teacher at Koto village mosque, Rueso District, Narathiwat, was arrested by military and police personnel on 19 March 2008, and died two days later at a military camp in the district.
An autopsy found that his ribs were broken and his right chest wall was punctured.
After filing a complaint with local police and seeing no progress, his wife brought a criminal lawsuit herself at the Provincial Court on 20 Aug 2009 against 5 military officers and one policeman for detaining and torturing her husband to death while in their custody.
This was the first time that a civilian had lodged a criminal lawsuit against security officials in the southern border provinces.
However, the provincial court dismissed all charges against the military and police officers on 2 Sept 2010.
The ruling was later upheld by the Appeals Court.
Nima then brought the criminal case to the Supreme Court on 12 July 2011.
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