Amnesty urges govt to drop charges against park activists

The campaign, which has run for a month, claims that Thai authorities have continuously sought to suppress people attempting to expose or investigate affairs at the park. People active on social media in relation to the issue including those who click “Like” on Facebook were also under threat by the authorities, it claims.

Amnesty, therefore, called on the government to stop such the actions and allow freedom of expression while dropping charges directed at activists.

Police spokesman Pol General Dejnarong Suthicharnbancha said yesterday that people still had freedom to travel to the park but were not allowed to stage political acts. The country needed a degree of peace at present and activist Sirawith Seritiwat knew well what was behind his moves. 

Dejnarong said police had found some political motives behind Sirawith’s moves.The spokesman said police had issued arrest warrants against him and five other activists who rejected a previous police summons. He called on the activists to surrender and respect the law like others, he said.

Sirawith claimed on his Facebook account on Thursday that some four or five military officers went to his house to search for him without a search warrant. He claimed that they threatened his grandmother who was alone at a house to convince him to surrender. They also took a box containing his collection of railway tickets, he claimed. His whereabouts remains unknown.