Eighty-eight defendants charged with trafficking Rohingya migrants from Myanmar appeared in the Criminal Court Tuesday for the initial examination of evidence and witnesses in their trial.
They included former senior army adviser Lt Gen Manas Kongpan and Patchuban Angchotphan, or "Ko Tong", the former head of the Satun provincial administration organisation.
Lt Gen Manas, Mr Patchuban and the other 86 defendants arrived at court Tuesday amid tight security. They are accused of conspiring in the trafficking of Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants between January 2011 and May 1 this year.
They allegedly offered to smuggle them to Malaysia to find work. Instead, many of the illegal migrants were taken to jungle camps along the Thai-Malaysian border and extorted for extra money, prosecutors say.
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The camps were tightly patrolled by trafficking network guards to prevent the captive migrants from escaping.
Food and water were severely rationed at the camps and many of the inmates died, it is alleged.
The court has scheduled four days for the examination of evidence and witnesses, from Tuesday until Friday.
The defendants will not be taken to court today or tomorrow.
No relatives or media representatives are allowed to attend the proceedings.
The court set Nov 17 for the first day of the trial and expects to conduct at least 200 hearings and hear testimony from about 400 witnesses before it reaches a verdict.
Security was tight at the court with police commandos from the Crime Suppression Division and Phahon Yothin police helping guard the court building and surrounding area.
The courts have issued arrest warrants for 153 human trafficking suspects. Of those, 91 have been arrested and 88 of them have been arraigned in court. The three others are still being detained.
The case was moved to the Criminal Court in Bangkok on Sept 29 after prosecutors in Songkhla appealed to the Supreme Court in August, asking that the trial be transferred. They said the case involved a transnational gang and many state officials were involved.
They also said the case had drawn much attention from the public and the international community and that the Na Thawi Court in Songkhla was too small to accommodate all the defendants and lawyers.
Earlier this year 32 graves believed to contain the remains of Bangladeshi and Rohingya illegal migrants were found in Padang Besar in Sadao district of Songkhla, which borders Malaysia.
