(From Reuters)
The trial of 92 suspected human traffickers, arrested after the discovery of shallow graves of migrants in a southern jungle, began in Bangkok on Tuesday and the attorney-general’s office said it would be over within a year amid fears about the safety of witnesses.
Traffickers abandoned boatloads of migrants at sea last year after a crackdown by authorities that led to a regional migrant crisis with Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Bangladesh refusing boats permission to land.
Rights groups had expressed fears that a drawn-out case, lasting anything up to two years, could put the hundreds of witnesses at risk because of inadequate police protection.
“The court is accelerating the case to finish within a year,” said Prayut Porsuttayaruk, deputy director-general of the human-trafficking office at the Attorney General’s Office. Read More