Lawsuits against activists an attempt to silence critics, say rights groups
HUMAN rights groups have criticised the government’s crackdown on two activists as an attempt to silence political opponents by abusing the law to limit freedom of expression.
During the past week, two political activists have been charged with violation of the Computer Crime Act and other allegations, including stirring social unrest and contempt of court. The seemingly brazen abuse of the law to intimidate opponents of the government was seen as a violation of the UN declaration on protection of human rights defenders.
The first person to be charged was lawyer and human rights activist Anon Nampha. He was accused of violating Article 14 of the Computer Crime Act by uploading false information to the Internet and contempt of court.
The other person charged was Lieutenant Sunisa Divakorndamrong, a former leading official with the Pheu Thai Party, who has been charged with violation of the Computer Crime Act and Article 116 of Criminal Code by supporting social unrest.
Human rights lawyer Pawinee Chumsri said the latest crackdown on activists was an attempt to intimidate opponents of the government from speaking out against the authorities, which is a serious violation of the right to freedom of expression.
“We can see that the Computer Crime Act is still being constantly misused against the activists, even though the law has been amended to prevent the use of this law on defamation lawsuits,” Pawinee said.
“However, the officers still widely interpret this law in their own way to silence those who disagree with the government.”
Four human rights groups – Cross Cultural Foundation, Human Rights Lawyers Association, Community Resource Centre Foundation, and EnLaw Thai Foundaion – released a statement on Friday to protest the action against Anon. They demanded that the government stop litigation against all human rights defenders.
In the statement, they pointed out that the lawsuit against Anon can be considered a strategic litigation against public participation, or SLAPP lawsuit, which is a violation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), as he was on the forefront to promote human rights in Thailand and was helping those who had been deprived of their rights.
The groups urged the authorities to stop the legal action against Anon and all activists as per the UDHR.