{"id":1767,"date":"2018-05-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-30T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/urgent-action-protestors-arrested-on-military-coup-anniversary\/"},"modified":"2024-09-23T16:26:27","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T09:26:27","slug":"urgent-action-protestors-arrested-on-military-coup-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/news\/2018\/05\/urgent-action-protestors-arrested-on-military-coup-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"URGENT ACTION: PROTESTORS ARRESTED ON MILITARY COUP ANNIVERSARY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo: #Realframe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15 activists face criminal proceedings and up to seven years\u2019 imprisonment for taking part in a peaceful pro-democracy protest on 22 May 2018 in Bangkok. Charges against them include sedition and violating a repressive ban on peaceful political assembly.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Rangsiman Rome, Sirawit Serithiwat, Piyarat Chongthep, Nikorn, Wiset, Nattha Mahattana, Anon Numpa, Ekkachai Hongkangwan, Chonthicha Jaengrew, Chokchai Paiboonratchata, Kiri Khanthong, Putthaising Pimchan, Wiroj Trong-ngamrak<\/strong> and two others face criminal proceedings under between nine and eleven separate charges, including sedition, for their role in a peaceful protest on 22 May 2018. If prosecuted and found guilty of the charges, they could face up to seven years imprisonment. Calling for Thailand\u2019s general election to be held in November 2018, the group took part in a peaceful demonstration in central Bangkok on the anniversary of the military takeover of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Demonstrators planned to march from Thammasat University to Government House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


In the days before the protest, in an apparent bid to prevent the protest taking place, authorities had taken extensive measures to harass and intimidate participants, including detaining a couple who rented out sound systems in a military camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


On 22 May police blocked demonstrators with a barrier to prevent them reaching the main road as well as broadcast a soap opera theme song from loudspeakers while protest leaders made speeches. Authorities arrested five individuals who started to march in the direction of Government House, and then detained ten other leaders and participants in the protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The 15 individuals face a series of charges, including sedition, violating an official ban on \u201cpolitical\u201d gatherings of five or more persons, and violations of the Road Traffic Act and Public Assembly Act 2015, which excessively restricts peaceful public assembly. They are due to appear in court on 11 July 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please write immediately in English, Thai or your own language urging the authorities to:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u2022 Drop all criminal proceedings against the 15 activists in relation to their exercise of the human right to peaceful assembly;<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u2022 Repeal or else amend all laws and edicts which arbitrarily restrict the right to peaceful assembly, including NCPO Order 3\/2015 and the Public Assembly Act and allow individuals to exercise their rights without intimidation or harassment in accordance with Thailand\u2019s obligations under international human rights law<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 5 JULY 2018 TO:<\/strong>

Prime Minister
Gen. Prayut Chan-O-Cha
Government House
Pitsanulok Road, Dusit
Bangkok 10300, Thailand
Fax: +66 2282 5131
Email: prforeign@gmail.com
Salutation: Dear Prime Minister<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commissioner General of
Royal Thai Police
Pol. Gen Chakthip Chaijinda
Royal Thai Police Headquarters,
Rama 1 Road, Pathum Wan,
Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Fax: +66 2251 4739
Salutation: Dear Commissioner General<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And copies to:
Minister of Justice
Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana
Ministry of Justice Government Centre
Building A Chaengwattana Road
Bangkok 10210, Thailand
Fax: +66 2953 0503<\/p>\n\n\n\n

URGENT ACTION Full Version<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amnesty International invited global supporter to send letters to Thailand after 15 activists face criminal proceedings and imprisonment for taking part in a peaceful pro-democracy protest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image-id":0,"_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-image-id":0,"_hero_title":"","_hero_content":"","_hero_cta_text":"","_hero_cta_link":"","_hero_alignment":"","_hero_background":"","_hero_size":"","_hero_show":"","_hero_type":"","_hero_embed":"","_hero_video_id":0,"_hero_hide_image_caption":true,"_hero_hide_image_copyright":false,"_nav_style":"","_disable_share_icons":false,"_disable_sidebar":false,"_display_author_info":false,"_hide_featured_image":false,"_hide_featured_image_caption":true,"_maximize_post_content":false,"_reduce_content_width":false,"_sidebar_id":0,"_stretch_thumbnail":false,"byline_context":"","byline_entity":"","byline_is_author":false,"disable_related_content":false,"download_id":0,"download_text":"","show_published_date":true,"show_updated_date":true,"term_slider":"","amnesty_index_number":"","recipients":"","recipients_refresh":"","recipients_refreshed":"","amnesty_umbraco_data":"","document_ref":"","amnesty_updated":"","footnotes":""},"category":[1585],"location":[1587],"resourceType":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-1767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","location-thailand"],"datePosted":"May 31, 2018","mlpRelationships":{"1":1787,"2":1767},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category?post=1767"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=1767"},{"taxonomy":"resource-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resourceType?post=1767"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amnesty.or.th\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=1767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}