Police ‘overdid it’ in having my passports revoked, says Chaturon
Key Pheu Thai party figure Chaturon Chaisang said he hoped Friday’s court decision to cancel a revocation order on his three passports would remind authorities to not take unnecessary measures that deprive people of their rights.
“The reasons given for revoking my passports were all wrong,” Chaturon told The Sunday Nation. “The police reasoned that I had been issued with an arrest warrant and was about to flee the country. Neither claim was correct.”
Chaturon, who has served in four Cabinet posts, had two ordinary passports and a diplomatic one before they were revoked in 2015. This followed a request from the Royal Thai Police to the Foreign Ministry on the grounds that he had criticised the junta governmen.
On Friday, the Central Administrative Court retroactively overturned the Department of Consular Affairs’ order cancelling the politician’s passports.
In a petition filed last January, Chaturon said that he although he had records of being summoned to the military court by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), junta chief Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had permitted him to leave Thailand on many occasions.
“The police just overdid it,” Chaturon said. “The junta itself didn’t even go this far.”