CityNews – The Court of Appeals Region 5 is moving to Chiang Rai, while still embroiled in the ongoing controversy over the judicial residences on Doi Suthep.
A report from the Office of the Judicial Administration Commission last week revealed that the Court of Justice is negotiating with the Department of Agriculture regarding the relocation of the Court of Appeals Region 5 which is planning to move to the Horticulture Research Centre in Chiang Rai.
Meanwhile, the dispute over the ‘Scar of Doi Suthep’ continues, as many residents refuse to move out of the compound, in spite of widespread protests and a prior directive from the Prime Minister himself.
Teerasak Rupsuwan, the coordinator of the anti-judicial residences on Doi Suthep campaign commented on the news stressing that the campaign’s sole aim is to remove the 45 residences and nine buildings from Doi Suthep and to restore the forest. He says that the relocation of the Court of Appeal Region 5 is irrelevant to the campaign.
There are currently 30 residences being lived in this supposedly ‘no-residences allowed area’. They have refused to move out as they claim that they are Chiang Mai Provincial Court officers, not officials of the Court of Appeal Region 5, refusing to acknowledge that it is not the office of the residents that is causing such controversy, but the existence of the residences themselves.
The campaigners will hold a meeting to stress the issue this week and is planning on another rally at Tha Pae Gate
on August 26th.