Pattaya-area police and soldiers stopped cars headed toward Bangkok looking for “red shirts” planning to attend former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s court hearing.
Banglamung police and army soldiers set up Sukhumvit Road checkpoints in front of the Banglamung station, Boontavorn home-appliance store and Big C South Pattaya.
Private cars and public transport vehicles were stopped with officers checking for members aligned with the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship.
Their stated goal was to check for weapons or “unexpected threats to others”, although the anti-government protestors simply called it harassment.
The government deployed more than 3,000 police and soldiers to prevent demonstrations or unrest steaming from Yingluck’s scheduled appearance at the Supreme Court, which was supposed to read the verdict in the criminal case over her administration’s rice-pledging scheme.
Yingluck did not appear and reportedly has fled Thailand to Dubai. The court issued a warrant for her arrest.
