109 people, including 89 foreigners and 22 Thais, who attended a party at a clifftop bar on Koh Phangan have been given suspended prison sentences and fines for violating Thailand's emergency laws and COVID-19 regulations. received. The judge sentenced each attendee to one month in prison, suspended for one year if they have a good conduct record. He also fined them 4,000 baht each.
Police arrested most of the participants in a raid at Three Sixty Bar on Tuesday night. The foreigners arrested included 20 French nationals, 10 American nationals, and six British nationals. Other participants were from Russia and Switzerland. All were tested for coronavirus by local health authorities. So far, all results are negative.
Koh Phangan was once a popular destination for backpackers, “health” seekers and hippies, and was also famous for its monthly Full Moon Party. However, while the monthly invasion of Hadrin Beach has been canceled since March 2020, a core of overseas migrants and tourists remain in Thailand or are waiting for the pandemic to subside. Many people have moved to the island in search of a relaxed, tropical lifestyle. Thailand effectively banned all tourists from entering the country in April 2020 due to the coronavirus.
Koh Phangan is a short boat ride from Koh Samui, located off the coast of Surat Thani province in the Gulf of Thailand.
Police said the raid was easy because organizers had advertised the Celebration 5 Bang Party a lot on social media (below). The party was promoting the event in celebration of the bar's fifth anniversary in business.
The court held trials of 109 people via video conference.
The Thai organizer and two bartenders were sentenced to a fine of 10,000 baht and a suspended sentence of two years in prison. The party host claimed he had made an “honest mistake”.
“I thought Surat Thani province was in the COVID-19 green zone… I thought we were allowed to organize activities.”
Thailand is currently rated into four zones – red, orange, yellow and green – depending on the number of cases of the current outbreak, which has spread across the country in the past five weeks and has tripled the number of infections by December 20. has been done. Since January 2020, there are currently 17,023 cases recorded, with 802 new cases today and a total of 76 deaths.
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Source: Associated Press
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