Pannika seeks clarification from police over passport revocation order
Pannika Wanich, a leading member of the Progressive Movement, went to the Phayathai police station on Thursday to seek clarification over an order for the Consular Affairs Department to revoke her passport.
Speaking to reporters at the station, Pannika said she found out about the order on Wednesday when she went to a passport office in Pathumwan district to renew her passport.
She said officials unsuccessfully tried several times to renew her passport so they checked with the Consular Affairs Department and found out about the order from the Phayathai police station.
The order, signed on April 19 last year by the deputy chief of the station, Pol Lt-Colonel Baramee Wong-inta, instructed the department to revoke the passports of Pannika and two other Progressive Movement leaders – Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit and Piyabutr Saengkanokkul.
The order states that the three are facing a sedition charge for violating Section 116 of the Criminal Code. Suwit Thongprasert, former monk Phra Puttha Isara, had filed a complaint against the three, accusing them of violating Section 116 during political campaigns when they were members of the Future Forward Party.
Kannika said the case had not been sent by public prosecutors to court yet so the court had not issued any order to ban the three from leaving the country.
She said she understood that the Consular Affairs Department only partially provided cooperation to police because the department did not revoke the active passports of the three but simply refused to renew Kannika’s after it expired.
She said Piyabutr could travel out of the country recently because his passport was not revoked although the police order was issued last year. But she was not sure whether he would face any trouble when he returned to the country.
Kannika said she suspected that police selectively sought the passport revocation of the three Progressive Movement leaders because they were opponents of the government.
She backed up her suspicion by pointing out that more than 300 people have been charged with violating the lese majesty law under Section 112 of the Criminal Code and Section 116 during the past three years. She said it was impossible for police to revoke the passports of all of them.
Pannika said she would ask the police station which exact articles of which law it invoked to issue the order.