Mass verdicts at human trafficking trial a first step
Originally published on Channel NewsAsia on July 19, 2017
Thailand’s biggest human trafficking trial in numbers: 103 defendants, 62 guilty of 13 different charges, jail time from 4 to 94 years. Among the highest-profile convicted are a former army general (27 years), a former mayor of Padang Besar (78 years), a former official in the Satun provincial official (75 years) and a notorious man who ran a slave camp in the jungle (94 years). And, lest we forget, the court has also ordered the defendants to pay over 4,4m Baht ($131k) in compensation to the #Rohingya victims.
Here's my Channel NewsAsia appearance talking briefly about the significance about the trial as the verdict was still read out - all 500 pages of them.