The villagers argue that they or their ancestors lived on the land before the land papers were issued, but Thanom Songserm of the Committee on Human Rights and Liberties and Consumer Protection said he believed that, on current evidence, they will probably lose any case in civil court.
On a visit to Governor Maitree Intusut yesterday (April 25), Mr Thanom explained that he believed they would lose because the Mr Piyawat has documents to support his claim while the villagers do not.
He advised that they should take any evidence they have of past occupation of the land and go to the Administrative Court for a ruling as to whether the original documents were issued correctly or not by the Land Office.
(The Administrative Court’s function is to judge on disputes between private citizens and government organisations.)
Even if the Administrative Court eventually ruled against them, he said, the case in that court would protect them from any decision in another court until the Administrative Court makes its own judgement.
Sea Gypsy leaders at the meeting were advised that they should be ready to lodge their case with the Administrative Court by June because the ongoing Civil Court case against the villagers is expected to be completed in that month.
The Governor agreed that this looked like a sensible course.