No action against anti-coup student protesters: NCPO
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THE National Council for Peace and Order will not take any special action against more than 30 students staging symbolic anti-coup protests to mark the first anniversary of the May 22 coup, NCPO spokesman Winthai Suvari said yesterday.
He said they would not be asked to attend “attitude adjustment” sessions because the government did not want to create conditions that may lead to more issues.
He denied that security officials had physically assaulted the students. Winthai warned social media users against forwarding messages and pictures, smearing and vilifying security officials claiming they had attacked the students.
Pol Colonel Jarut Sarutyaporn, the superintendent of Pathumwan Police Station, said all students who had staged a protest outside Bangkok Art and Culture Centre on Friday had been released without being charged after keeping their personal information.
Police would later scrutinise security camera footage and question witnesses at the scene. If the students were found to have committed any offence, they would be summoned to face charges.
After being released at 6am yesterday, the students stood arm in arm and sang a song with supporters who waited outside the police station all night.
Rangsiman Rom, a Thammasat University student, said that though their activity is legal the police were treating them as illegal.
Meanwhile, a group of seven Khon Kaen university students calling themselves Dow Din were released after posting Bt7,500 bail each.
They staged the anti-coup protest, holding placards at the Khon Kaen city pillar shrine on Friday.
They were taken to the Patcharin military camp to undergo attitude adjustment but they refused to attend the session.
They later were taken to Khon Kaen Police Station and charged with violating the NCPO order No 3/58. They were detained at the station till 11pm on Friday. About 60 villagers, students and environmentalists gathered at the police station to pressure the police to release them
The seven are Chatupat Bunpat-taraksa, Apiwat Suntararak, Payu Bunsopon, Panupong Srithananu-wat, Suwicha Thipangkorn, Supachai Pookrongploy, Wasant Setsith.
They refused an offer from their university lecturers to bail them out with their state official positions.
They were detained at the police station till yesterday morning before being released with money contributed by the Confederation of Students.
Chatupat, or Pai, was arrested in November last year after his three-finger, anti-coup salute when Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was delivering a policy speech to government officials.
He said he believed he had the right to express his belief and what he did was not illegal. He insisted he would continue to be firm in his ideology.
