A Thai general is among more than 100 defendants facing a verdict Wednesday in a sprawling 2015 human trafficking case which saw thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants abandoned at sea and in jungle death camps.
Thailand’s junta launched a crackdown in May that year on a multi-million-dollar network running migrants through southern Thailand and onto Malaysia.
It unspooled a crisis across Southeast Asia as gangmasters abandoned their hungry and desperate human cargo in jungle camps and at sea in overcrowded boats which were then “ping ponged” between Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian waters.
Rights groups long accused officials of ignoring — or even orchestrating — the trade in humans through Thailand’s southern provinces.
The area was the crucial link in a criminal trail that stretched from Myanmar to Malaysia.
The junta crackdown revealed a lattice of military, police, local political and mafia acting as traffickers, brokers and logistics men, all soaking up cash from impoverished migrants.
Bangkok Criminal Court began proceedings on Wednesday morning, with a protracted hearing expected for the verdicts of 102 defendants — one of the accused died while on remand.
They are accused of offences spanning human trafficking, ransom and murder. All deny the charges.
Media were barred from the court itself, relying instead on an audio relay of the complex proceedings.
Judges placed heavy reporting restrictions on much of the testimony, citing national security concerns. But the case has still lifted the lid on the power networks dominating southern Thailand.
Army Lieutenant-General Manas Kongpan, a top figure in the security apparatus covering the south, is the highest-ranking official on trial.
In 2013 he was promoted to head the Internal Security Command (ISOC) for the south. Current junta leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha was army chief at the time.
Another well-connected alleged kingpin is Pajjuban Aungkachotephan, better known as Ko Tong or ‘Big Brother Tong’.
Police accused him of using private Andaman Sea islands, close to tourist spots such as Koh Lipe, to shift boatloads of migrants to the mainland, where they were packed into lorries and taken to the fetid camps straddling the Malaysia border.
An army captain, four ranking police officers, a nurse and several officials, including the mayor of Pedang Besar in Satun province, are also among the accused.
The crisis emerged after Thai officials uncovered dozens of shallow graves in the hidden camps dotting the steep, forested hills of the Thai-Malaysian border.
They revealed the horrors endured by migrants, who were starved and held in bamboo pens by traffickers who demanded ransoms for their release.
The verdict is being closely-watched inside and outside Thailand.
The government is desperate to dispel the kingdom’s notorious reputation for human trafficking and close one of the darkest chapters in the country’s recent history.
But critics say the trial has already been marred by witness intimidation, secret evidence hearings and restrictions on media reporting.
Amy Smith, from Fortify Rights, said the trial has a narrow focus.
“We expect there are many more perpetrators out there,” she told AFP.
“This is a big business with big money.”
The senior policeman who initially headed the investigation, Major General Paween Pongsirin, fled Thailand under threats to his life.
Days before he left he told AFP the case had been pulled before it could delve further into the complicity of officials.
Stateless Rohingya Muslims have fled neighbouring Myanmar in their tens of thousands since sectarian violence flared in 2012.
They were joined by Bangladeshi economic migrants on a rickety boats southwards across the Andaman Sea, seeking work and sanctuary in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Thousands are believed to have died at sea, in a migrant flow that garnered few headlines until the trafficking crackdown in 2015.
The sea route south has been quiet since the crackdown.
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