The Criminal Court yesterday acquitted respected scholar Sulak Sivaraksa, who was charged by PTT Plc for his role in a protest against the construction of a Thai-Burmese gas pipeline project in Kanchanaburi province eight years ago. PTT had charged Mr Sulak with violating the Petroleum Authority of Thailand Act of BE 2521, saying he and 30 other people had staged a sit-in protest which obstructed the pipeline construction in tambon Huay Khayeng, Thong Pha Phum district, between March 2-6, 1998.

Mr Sulak told the court that the protest rally was staged because he and his group believed that the pipeline project posed a grave threat to the ecological system and wildlife, including endangered species, that lived in the rich forest in Thong Pha Phum district. Also, he said, there was no public hearing before the project was implemented.

He also argued that the Petroleum Authority of Thailand Act cited by the agency, then called the Petroleum Authority of Thailand, in proceeding with the legal case against him was invalid. The act had been nullified and replaced by two royal decrees that resulted in the privatisation of the agency, which subsequently became PTT Plc, Mr Sulak said.

Also, the decrees contained no clause that specified penalties against protesters who obstructed or prevented authorities from doing their work. Since they invalidated and replaced the act on Oct 1, 2001, the defendant's alleged offence automatically became null and void, he said.

The Criminal Court agreed with Mr Sulak's reasoning, saying that the two decrees empowered PTT staff to expropriate land in order to carry out the pipeline project but, unlike the nullified act, did not specify any penalty against protesters.

The prosecutor representing PTT Plc said the agency would appeal.

* from http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/19Aug2006_news15.php