The Thon Buri Criminal Court has sentenced 16 men to prison for raiding a school where students were sitting exams and assaulting people there after a complaint about the noise at a nearby ordination ceremony.
The court found the 16 men guilty of the violent intrusion at Mathayomwatsing School in Bang Khunthian district, and causing injury to 15 students and teachers, on Feb 24.
Charges against six other defendants were dismissed because of lack of evidence against them.
The convicted defendants were given jail terms varying from two months to 19 years and three months in total, depending on their part in the intrusion. They were also ordered to pay from 35,400 baht to 56,142 baht in compensation to the school and people they injured.
Five other defendants were given two month suspended terms plus a 2,500 baht fine. One defendant was acquitted.
The defendants burst into the school while students were sitting GAT/PAT tests for university entrance.
The intrusion followed a complaint from the school sent to nearby Wat Sing in the morning that the noise from an ordination ceremony was disturbing the exams.
That afternoon, a group of men who were attending the ordination celebration went to the school, forced their way inside and assaulted some exam-takers and supervisors in the rooms.
The tests were briefly disrupted and the supervisors decided to extend the test for another 30 minutes.
Many of the students later re-sat the tests.
