Bangkok, Dec 12 (IANS)

Former Thailand prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was Thursday formally indicted on murder charges for a rally crackdown in 2010, which claimed many lives.

Abhisit was released on bail after the indictment, reports Xinhua.

Suthep Thaugsuban, who then served as deputy prime minister, and director of the now-dissolved Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES), faces similar charges, but he did not show up at the criminal court.

Suthep, now a core leader of the ongoing anti-government rally, sent a lawyer to ask the court to postpone his indictment as he was busy leading the protest.

The CRES ordered the military crackdown on demonstrations by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, also known as "Red Shirts", resulting in 92 deaths and leaving more than 2,000 people injured.

From March to May 2010, several thousands of Red Shirts gathered in Bangkok and called for the Abhisit administration to dissolve parliament.

After demonstrators seized the heart of the capital's business zone for more than a month, the military, under the CRES's supervision, launched a deadly crackdown, in which over 90 people were killed.