The Civil Court has ruled to shut down an Islamic school in Thailand’s restive Deep South, alleging that it supported Muslim Malay insurgents, although the Criminal Court previously found the school executives not guilty.

 

On Thursday, 21 July 2016, the Bangkok Civil Court made a decision to confiscate the land owned by Islam Burapha School, a pondok school in Narathiwat Province, in Thailand’s Deep South, reasoning that the school gave support to the separatist movement, BBC Thai reported.

 

According to BBC Thai, the allegation of separatist support follows the arrest within the school grounds of insurgent suspects in 2012. After the arrest, three school directors at that time were charged with involvement in the insurgent movement but the Criminal Court dismissed the case.    

 

Phongjarat Ruayram, the defence lawyer, said that the Civil Court’s verdict is problematic for two reasons. First, it does not consider the Criminal Court verdict in 2012 which obviously states that the school and directors were not involved in the insurgency. 

 

Secondly and more importantly, instead of using police investigators, the court relied on testimony and evidence from an interrogation centre at Ingkhayuthaborihan military camp, notorious for allegedly torturing insurgent suspects, and also excluded Pongcharat from the investigation.

 

Subaidah Dalah, the current school director, said that she is disappointed with the verdict, and will appeal, adding that the shutdown would have a large effect on the local community. 

 

“We have to fight for children, parents, ourselves, and the surrounding community. We can’t give up because we’ve already prepared a long term development plan for the school. We received funding for more buildings, and the school is registered as a royal patronage project. We cannot abandon what we have built with our own hands,” BBC Thai quoted Subaidah as saying. 

 

BBC Thai also reported that this is the second lawsuit forcing the shutdown of an Islamic school in the Deep South. In 2015, Pondok Jihad School was also forced to shut down for similar reasons, which led to local outrage. However, unlike Islam Burapha, the case was not appealed.