BANGKOK, Nov 15 – The Supreme Court today upheld the life sentence of a southern native on charges of rebellion, assaults in connection with territorial separatism, weapons procurement and robbery.
Rosdi Mayama, a former motorcycle mechanic in Narathiwat, allegedly collaborated with members of a separatist movement in Thailand’s South in an attempt to establish the “Pattani State” which would include the Muslim-majority provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Satun and two Songkhla districts, Sadao and Saba Yoi.
According to the public prosecutor, Mr Rosdi had been involved in violent and successive terrorism which led the movement to stock weapons, indulge in propaganda, instigate people to hate civil servants and the Thai government, and brainwash students in Muslim religious schools.
The movement has led to people’s deaths and injuries, and damage to public and private property, and fostered fear among the people inThailand’s southern provinces.
The court said Mr Rosdi confessed that he was a member of the separatist movement at the persuasion of Masugi Seng, and involved in the robbery of arms from the Fourth Army Battalion in Narathiwat on January 4, 2004.
In 2008, the Criminal Court sentenced Mr Rosdi to death, but his sentence was later commuted to life in prison after he confessed. He appealed the ruling.
The Appeal Court on July 2011 upheld the life imprisonment sentence.
