Members of the New Democracy Movement activist group and supporters hold up pictures of the 14 students who had been held for holding anti-coup protests, during a rally outside the military court in Bangkok yesterday.
AFP/Bangkok
A group of Thai students detained over a peaceful anti-coup rally will be released from jail but still face sedition charges, their lawyer said yesterday, in a case that has sparked international condemnation.
Thailand’s ruling junta has come under increasing pressure to drop the case against the 14 students, who are among the few activists that have dared to publicly challenge the military after it seized power from an elected government last year and imposed sweeping curbs on civil liberties.
The activists -- university students in their 20s, including one woman -- have been in custody since late June.
They were detained after holding a peaceful protest at Bangkok’s Democracy Monument and charged with sedition, which carries up to seven years in jail. The group also face charges for breaching the junta order against public gatherings over protests in May to mark one year since the coup.
Yesterday, Krisadang Nutcharut, a lawyer representing some of the students, said the military court denied a police request to detain the activists for another 12 days. “The students have shown no sign of wanting to escape (the country). Detention is preventing them from fighting their case,” Krisadang said, adding that the students would be released from jail today morning while the charges against them had not been dropped.
He had earlier believed the students would be released but the court said they can be detained until the current detention order expires at midnight.
The case, slammed by rights groups as a serious escalation in repression by the junta, is being handled by Bangkok’s military court where there is no right of appeal once convicted and hearings are often held behind closed doors. Yesterday morning soldiers cordoned off access to the court to journalists and supporters of the activists, who held up photographs of the students and called and sang for their release in defiance of earlier warnings by Thailand’s army chief.
Last week the European Union and the UN Human Rights Office added their voice to that of rights groups, calling on Thailand to drop the charges and free the activists from custody.
Thailand’s generals claim the May 2014 coup was essential to restore order after months of often violent protests against the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra.
But opponents say it was the latest manoeuvre by Bangkok-based royalist elites, backed by large swathes of the military and the judciary, to scupper democracy and protect their interests.
