BANGKOK, Thailand – Seven senior figures of Thailand’s Red Shirt movement walked free on bail Tuesday after nine months behind bars on terrorism charges stemming from the 2010 mass protests that ended in a military crackdown killing around 90 people.

Court Sentences 11 Former Red Shirt Protesters for 2010 Demonstrations

The Criminal Court agreed to release the group — including prominent figures Natthawut Saikua, Weng Tojirakarn and Kokaew Pikulthong — after defence lawyers presented new evidence. Bail conditions bar them from foreign travel and from making remarks likely to incite unrest.

Asked whether the ruling would aid reconciliation, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told reporters the decision rested with the court. Most Red Shirt leaders surrendered soon after troops broke up the rally in Bangkok’s retail heartland, though some remain at large.

Hundreds gathered outside the suburban prison, some playing music and carrying red roses, cheering as the men emerged in white T-shirts holding hands. “Friends, we are back. We are back with our spirits, our intentions and our lives, which we dedicate to democracy,” Natthawut told supporters.

Jatuporn Prompan, a Red Shirt leader shielded by parliamentary immunity, called the ruling “very meaningful” and vowed to push ahead with a 12 March protest marking a year since the rally began. He said they would fight every case and urged fugitive leaders to surrender and seek bail.

Thailand has remained deeply polarised since the unrest, its worst civil violence in decades. The Reds have staged peaceful one-day rallies demanding their leaders’ release, with police estimating 30,000 people massed in the capital on Saturday. Rival Yellow Shirt nationalists have also taken to the streets, protesting Abhisit’s handling of a deadly border dispute with Cambodia. Red Shirts point to the freedom of key Yellows facing terrorism charges over the 2008 seizure of two Bangkok airports that stranded more than 300,000 travellers and battered the economy.

Chulalongkorn University political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak said the ruling would “release a bit of pressure” in the short term, but warned that further Red Shirt anger over perceived double standards, combined with Yellow Shirt mobilisation against the government, is “a recipe for a clash down the road.” Thailand also extended the Internal Security Act in Bangkok on Tuesday to handle renewed rallies — lighter than the emergency rule imposed for over eight months last year — allowing security personnel to block gatherings in certain areas.

Red shirts join protest on Sunday in the outskirts of Bangkok

The largely rural, working-class Reds remain loyal to fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a 2006 coup and living abroad to avoid a corruption sentence. They see the current government as undemocratic, born of a 2008 parliamentary vote after a court dissolved the previous administration, and have demanded snap elections. Last week, the deputy premier suggested polls could come by June.

-Thailand News (TN)