On 8 March, Dusit Municipal Court sentenced Suphot and Suphat Silarat to 3 months in prison for assaulting law lecturer Worachet Pakeerut in late February.

The court found them guilty of collaborating to commit a premeditated attack, and sentenced them to 6 months in prison, but the terms were commuted as they had pleaded guilty.

Suphot was given another 7 months for an offence under the Firearms Act, for which the court had given him a suspended jail term in 2010.

The sentences were not suspended, as the court saw that the defendants’ behaviour showed no respect for the law.

The defendants decided to appeal the verdict and were temporarily released on bail with 22,000-baht cash guarantees each.

Matichon reported on 6 March that, according to Somsak Puapan, Thanyaburi District Chief, in Nov 2010 Suphot registered a semi-automatic .45 pistol, which was distributed in a government officials’ welfare programme, using an identification card as a volunteer ranger attached to Ranger Taskforce 26 in Buriram province, issued by a colonel in May 2008 which expired in May 2010.

Suphat also used a similar identification card to register two semi-automatic 9mm pistols, a Beretta and an NZU 707 Glock, the latter distributed to officials of the Department of Provincial Administration.