BANGKOK, December 8, 2011 (AFP) - Thai police on Thursday questioned a former deputy prime minister in connection with a deadly military crackdown on mass opposition protests in the capital Bangkok last year.
Suthep Thaugsuban, who was in charge of national security at the time of the demonstrations, told reporters after visiting the Metropolitan Police headquarters as a witness that he had "acted within the law".
He added: "All officials were following orders which were given under the law."
More than 90 people, mostly civilians, were killed and nearly 1,900 were wounded during the April and May 2010 rallies, which drew about 100,000 "Red Shirt" demonstrators at their peak.
On Friday former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is due to be grilled by police as a witness.
It is the first time that top members of the previous government have been summoned for questioning over their handling of the protests, which ended when soldiers firing live rounds stormed the fortified rally site.
Thailand now has a new government allied to the Red Shirts' hero, fugitive former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, whose sister Yingluck is prime minister.
Her Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung last month said that Thai authorities had clear evidence that government troops were responsible for the death of a Japanese cameraman during last year's crackdown.
Police initially insisted that soldiers were not behind the killing of Reuters cameraman Hiroyuki Muramoto, one of two foreign journalists killed during clashes between troops and protesters.
On Wednesday Chalerm also told reporters that a "senior police officer", whom he did not identify, was behind the high-profile death of a renegade major-general who became an unofficial military advisor to the Red Shirts.
Khattiya Sawasdipol, known as Seh Daeng, was shot in the head during an interview with a foreign reporter near the protest site -- an area where snipers were deployed at the time -- and later died in hospital.
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