<p dir="ltr">The military court allowed four defendants of the ‘Khon Kaen Model’ alleged rebellion case, who had been arrested and detained since late May, to be released on bail due to the defendants’ poor health conditions. &nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">The military court in Bangkok on Monday sentenced a red-shirt political activist to one year in jail term for not reporting himself to the coup-maker and sentenced another anti-coup activist to six months imprisonment for protesting against the coup. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<div> <div>The military has harassed Boonyuen Siritum, a consumer rights and energy reform activist and former senator at her house in a bid to suppress rallies on energy reform.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Eight military officers on Wednesday morning raided the house of the former elected senator for Samut Songkhram Province and accused her of inciting people to stage rallies and being unusually rich.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The officers searched the house in Samut Songkhram’s Muang District without warrant, claiming that they can search any house under martial law. </div></div>

<p>After a group of students launched a campaign against the coup makers’ controversial nationalistic 12 Thai Values, which have been imposed on the curriculum, the military has intimidated a Grade 11 student in a bid to stop her from challenging the regime. The Education Minister also thinks the students might be abnormal.</p> <p>The junta reportedly called the director of the school to ask about the student activist in order to pressure the school, while the student activist insisted on carrying on with her activities for academic freedom</p>

<div> <div>The Military Court rejected bail requests of red-shirt defendants accused of planned rebellion against the coup makers despite the lacks of evidence, while their lawyers objected having the case tried in the martial court. The nickname ‘Khon Kaen Model’ was given to the cases of 26 defendants, mostly elderly, accused of being hard-core red shirts who planned to rebel against the junta.</div> <div> </div></div>

<div>Thailand’s credibility as a potential member of the United Nations Human Rights Council depends on the government’s addressing urgent human rights concerns at home, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, on October 18, 2014.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Thailand is a candidate, along with Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Qatar, for the four vacant Human Rights Council seats allocated for the Asia-Pacific region. </div>

<div> <div>Jaran Ditapichai, red-shirt leader and veteran political activist, has been charged with lèse majesté in connection with the play ‘The Wolf Bride’. </div></div>

<div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The Thai military in the western province of Tak on Monday stopped a caravan of Lahu villagers travelling to Bangkok to complain to the junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), according to Thairath.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Around noon on Monday, Gen Narongsak Sasang, deputy commander of security forces in Tak, led military and police to stop a caravan of 15 vans of ethnic minority Lahu from Tak’s Mae Sot District.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The military believed that the Lahu wanted to complain about the reclamation of their farm lands, under th </div></div>

<div>The accounts of torture include electric shocks to the genitals, suffocation, continuous beatings all night, and detention in a hole in the ground, while the hole was being filled.&nbsp;</div> <div> </div>

<p><img alt="" src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3948/15298213957_20eeaf51d6_c.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 504px;" /></p> <p><em>see larger image<a href="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3948/15298213957_4df7d1d514_h.jpg"> here</a></em></p> <div> <p>The Royal Gazette on 6 October announced the names of the 250 members of the National Reform Council (NRC) in accordance with Section 28 of the 2014 Interim Constitution.</p> </div>

<p>A recent comment on the New Mandala blog said of the Pheu Thai rice-pledging scheme: ‘It stripped wealth out of Thailand to about 800 billion baht, on a criminally stupid rice scheme and maybe another similar amount to the Thaksin and cronies.’</p> <p>OK, you have to excuse the ‘and cronies’ stuff.&nbsp; The poor dears who make comments of this ilk seem obligated to use such flaming language.&nbsp; I am beginning to suspect they have a programme on their computers that waves red flags if they fail to include ‘crony’ or ‘clone’ or ‘fugitive from justice’ or the like.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The study tour by Election Commission officials to observe the recent Scottish referendum on independence has been widely criticized.&nbsp; Some have noted that the Election Commission has not shown itself to be overly keen on organizing elections in this country, so why the interest in other countries?&nbsp;</p>