A Thai inquest into the death of a Japanese cameraman during a military crackdown five years ago against protesters ended inconclusively yesterday with the court unable to decide who fired the fatal shot.
Hiroyuki Muramoto, 43, of the Thomson Reuters news agency, was shot in the chest by an unknown gunman on April 10, 2010 while covering clashes between Thai troops and the anti-government Red Shirts.
Previous inquests into fatal cases linked to the violence have pointed at soldiers, including the killing of Italian Fabio Polenghi.
In November 2011 the government of now ousted prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra said there was "clear" evidence that father-of-two Muramoto had also been felled by a soldier's rifle.
But Bangkok's Southern Criminal Court said it could not definitively say whether the Japanese journalist and two Red Shirt demonstrators killed nearby were shot by soldiers or armed protesters.
Currently Thailand is controlled by the military following a coup that overthrew Yingluck.