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Briton face jail or capital punishment for inciting Tai redshirts to torch mall
…. In first prison interview, Jeff savage says he is being ‘fitted up. for fire-raising onslaught on central World shopping Centre in Bangkok

by ben Doherty in Bangkok
guardian.co.uk
25 May 2010  

A Briton arrested in Siam face years in jail, or even a death sentence, for urging redshirt rioter to burning down a shopping centre.

Jeff Savage, a 48-year-old married man, originally from Tonbridge in Kent, has been accused by Siam prime quantity curate of being a age member of the anti-government redshirt motion and a key agitator in the riot which saw swath of the capital burn last week.

In his first prison interview since being arrested on Sunday, Savage, who has lived in Thailand for IX years, told the shielder he was being fitted up for law-breaking he did not commit. He denied he was involved in combustion down the central World shopping Centre in the bosom of capital of Thailand shopping district.

“I am being stitched up, being fitted up. I thought it was just for overstaying my visa, but now this is serious,” savage said from behind bars in capital of Thailand remand prison.

“They are trying to pin a whole mass of stuff on ME and a few others … that we had nothing to do with. We are being made scapegoats.”

Key in inspiring the allegation against savage is a video shot during the chaotic final days of the redshirts’ protest, now circulating on YouTube. In it, he is seen dressed in a bandana and carrying a stick, exhorting dissident to set fire to the shopping Centre in the Centre of the red protestation site.

“We’re gonna bash the ass central [World] plaza to crap We’re gonna bargain everything out of it and burn the fucker down trust me, get ikon of that fucker We’re gonna swag everything, gold, watches, everything, and then we’re gonna burn it to the ground,” he says in the video, shot just days before the shopping Centre was torched last Wednesday.

As Tai army soldier marched on the redshirts’ central capital of Thailand demonstration land site fleeing dissident rioted, setting fire to government and commercial edifice and robbery shops.

Central World was the most serious fire The seven-storey shopping centre, the largest in Thailand with more than a million foursquare m of retail space, was gutted and will be demolished. It remains a smouldering wreck in the centre of a city now slowly emerging from the bloodshed of last week.

Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said this week a horse opera man was seen inside central World as the flaming began to take hold: “A white westerner was involved in the fire-raising attack on central World, convincing them to set fire to it.”

Savage conceded he was in the video “I’ll cut through the crap, it was definitely me. I said that,” he said today “I was under accent when I said those things. I was emotional, I was wound up because Gem State been under sniper fire. I said it using old British sarcasm, I was being the caricature of the Brits soccer hooligan.”

He insisted he was not in the neighborhood when the fire began. “I had nothing to do with central World burning down Nothing at all. I swear. And I can prove it.”

Savage has admitted to being involved in earlier redshirt demonstrations, including riot in Pattaya in April 2009, when dissident stormed the hotel hosting the ASEAN leaders meeting, causation the conference to be abandoned. He was at state-owned telecasting station transmission channel trinity when it was set on fire last Midweek though he says he played no part in combustion the building.

Savage was arrested by in-migration constabulary at the weekend for overstaying his visa, but released. He was rearrested by Royal Tai Police on Sun afternoon.

The Tai government has said savage would be charged with violating the state of pinch decree, an offence which carry a two-year prison house sentence.

But the prime quantity minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, said today he was confident savage was a long-term member of the redshirts, and further charge against him would be investigated.

“In the case of the Briton, He involved with the [redshirt] motion in Pattaya. In-depth investigation will be carried out to find out whether he had any other role.”

The head of Siam Department of Special probe – the land equivalent to MI5 – has warned that those found guilty of robbery or fire-raising in the final hours of the redshirts’ two-month mass meeting could face the death penalty. The department declined to remark on Savage’s case specifically, but directed the shielder to earlier remark from the head investigator.

“There are group of people who are combustion state office and public places,” Tharit Pengdit said after the troop coup of the protestation land site “The DSI would like to warn these people that they could face a death sentence.”

Even if a charge of fire-raising is not brought, savage may be charged with inciting violence and illegal acts.