One leader in the movement against the forest reclamation policy of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), Den Khamlae, a leading land rights activist, mysteriously disappeared 7 years ago and was later declared dead. He was last seen entering a forest to collect mushrooms and bamboo shoots in Khok Yao community in Chaiyaphum Province, where the villagers face a land dispute.

<p>Suphap Kamlae, a victim turned land rights defender in the Khok Yao community, Chaiyaphum Province, and widow of Den Kamlae, a land rights leader who mysteriously disappeared in 2016, passed away of liver and intestinal cancer on 6 May 2021.</p>

<div> <div>Suphap Khamlae, wife of disappeared land rights activist Den Khamlae, has been released upon completing a six-month jail sentence for land encroachment. At 65, Ms Suphap, of Khok Yao Village, Khon San District, Chaiyaphum Province, insists that she will continue to fight for the Khok Yao community until justice is achieved.</div> </div>

<p>46 civil society organisations have called for the release of the wife of a disappeared community rights activist imprisoned for land encroachment.</p> <p>On 3 November 2017, representatives of 46 civil society organisations submitted a petition to Cheep Chulamon, the president of the Supreme Court, calling for the release of Suphab Khamlae, 67, a villager of Khok Yao village in Chaiyaphum Province.</p> <p>The Supreme Court in July confirmed the lower court’s verdict to sentence Suphab and her husband, Den Khamlae, to six months imprisonment for encroaching into a protected area.</p>