At 13:00 hrs. Mr.Tharit Pengdit, Director-General, the Department of Special Investigations, briefed the press on the outcome of the meeting of the Center For Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO) earlier in the day, gist as follows:

1. Following the ruling of the Civil Court preventing the CMPO from performing its duties under the law, today the Director of the CMPO filed an appeal against and requested a stay of enforcement of the ruling. The CMPO Director was confident of winning the appeal as it was similar to that filed in 2010 requesting a repeal of the emergency decree at the time. The Civil Court had dismissed the appeal, ruling that the declaration of the Emergency Decree was legitimate as it was an exercise of authority by the administrative branch, upon which the judicial branch may not infringe.

2. As the Civil Court referred to the ruling of the Constitution Court that the protests led by the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) were peaceful, open and unarmed, the CMPO wished to point out that it was so only at the early stages. Since the Amnesty Bill was removed as a reason for the protests, the demonstration has only escalated to calling for the overthrow of the government, incitement to break the law, announcing an interim government and people's council without legal basis, setting up a volunteer force to replace police, besieging and occupying government offices, forcing government officials to leave their offices, calling for a stop to work and paying taxes, hunting for the Prime Minister, blocking the traffic, and obstructing elections. The CMPO will file a petition to the Constitution Court on 25 February to request a ruling that such acts by the PDRC are unconstitutional, unlike the protests against the Amnesty Bill.

3. Following the clash between members of the PDRC and police officers on 18 February at Phanfaa Lilat Bridge, in which firearms, grenades, M79 rocket launchers, and several kinds of pistols including tear gas were used, leaving 5 officers and civilians dead and 68 injured, the CMPO has instructed the police to expedite their investigations so that the progress may be shared with the public. The CMPO wished to reaffirm that the investigations will be conducted in a straightforward manner, based on forensic science procedure. Also, the CMPO wished to inform the public that video clips and pictures presented by Mr.Suthep Thaugsuban on the PDRC stage were misrepresented and inaccurate. These could mislead the public to believe that the police had instigated the violence, when it was actually done by an unidentified armed group, which Mr. Suthep admitted, thanking the group.