Chiang Rai venue chosen to move the buildings for judges on Doi Suthep

PHOTO: Thai PBS

Thai PBS is reporting that judicial administrators have agreed to ask the Agricultural Techniqe Department in Chiang Rai for the use of a 40-rai plot of their plants research centre to construct new offices and housing tor the Region 5 Appeals Court.

The request follows a protracted protest from Chiang Mai residents about the special housing for judges and staff on the slopes of Doi Suthep, a sacred mountain in Chiang Mai.

The secretary-general of the Office of the Judicial Affairs, Saravuth Benjakul, says the judicial board, chaired by Mr Cheep Julamont, president of the Supreme Court, resolved at a meeting held in Chiang Rai, to assign the Office of the Judicial Affairs to ask the Agricultural Technique Department for the use of land at the plants research centre to build a new office building and housing units for officials of Region 5 Appeals Court.

Once the construction at the new location is completed, judges and officials of Region 5 Appeals Court will be moved to the new site and then hand over the existing office build and housing units at the foot of Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai.

Mr Saravuth disclosed that the final phase of the construction at Doi Suthep foothill would be officially handed over to the Office of the Judicial Affairs by the builder on August 24.

Construction of the new office building and condominium units will take about three years, said Saravuth, adding, however, it would depend on when the government will approve the funding for the project.

Protests by Chiang Mai’s green groups and residents earlier this year against the Region 5 Appeals Court’s construction project at Doi Suthep foothill led to the intervention by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha who announced that no one would be allowed to stay at the foothill housing units and that a new solution should be worked out for the judicial officials.

Read more about the story leading up to this decision HERE.

SOURCE: Thai PBS