<p>The Criminal Court has detained six people accused of royal defamation for sharing a Facebook post of an academic in self-imposed exile who the junta has blacklisted. &nbsp;</p> <p>On 3 May 2017, the Criminal Court on Ratchadaphisek Rd., Bangkok, granted the police permission to detain six people accused of violating Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse majesté law.</p> <p>They were arrested by police and military officers separately in different parts of the country in late April.</p>

<p><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">The&nbsp;</span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.hrw.org/asia/thailand&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1493877498176000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGihXeZjPvcVJ71YrHm4kdOJk6N0g" href="https://www.hrw.org/asia/thailand" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" target="_blank">Thai</a><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">&nbsp;government should immediately disclose the whereabouts of Prawet Prapa</span></p>

<p>A provincial court in northern Thailand has dismissed charges against a local anti-junta activist accused of violating the controversial Referendum Act.</p> <p>The Provincial Court of Chiang Mai on 24 April 2017<a href="http://www.tlhr2014.com/th/?p=4077">&nbsp;acquitted Samat Khwanchai</a>, a 63-year-old anti-establishment red shirt, indicted for alleged violation of the Referendum Act for distributing leaflets at a parking lot of Panthip Plaza Shopping Mall in Chiang Mai on 21 July 2016.</p>

<p>Responding to a government warning that anyone who follows, contacts, or shares posts online with three prominent critics - historian Somsak Jeamteerasakul, journalist and author Andrew MacGregor Marshall, and former diplomat Pavin Chachavalpongpun - will be prosecuted under the Computer Crimes Act, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific Josef Benedict said:</p>

<p>The Appeal Court has once again refused to release an activist detained for sharing BBC Thai’s most popular story, which is now censored in Thailand.</p> <p>On 5 April 2017, Appeal Court Region 4&nbsp;<a href="http://www.tlhr2014.com/th/?p=3897">confirmed the ruling of the Court of First Instance not to release</a>&nbsp;Jatuphat ‘Pai’ Boonpattararaksa, a law student and key member of the New Democracy Movement (NDM).</p> <p>The ruling was read after Jatuphat’s lawyer submitted a request to appeal the earlier second ruling not to release the activist.</p>

<p>A provincial court has once again refused to release Jatuphat ‘Pai’ Boonpattararaksa, telling his defence lawyer to stop saying that his client’s rights are being violated.</p> <p>On 21 March 2017, the Provincial Court of Khon Kaen held the preliminary hearing on the case of Jatuphat, a law student and key member of the New Democracy Movement (NDM).</p>

<p>The military has forced villagers in Sa Kaeo to cancel a protest against plans to construct a factory to separate industrial and toxic wastes, saying only protests about dengue fever or illicit drugs would be allowed.</p> <p>On 21 March 2017, soldiers intervened in a meeting of a group of teachers and village headmen of Khlong Thap Chan Subdistrict of Aranyaprathet District in Sa Kaeo Province.</p>

<p>The authorities have accused three more youth activists of contempt of court for joining a peaceful gathering demanding Pai Dao Din’s release from prison.</p> <p>On 20 March 2017, <a href="http://www.tlhr2014.com/th/?p=3760">Thai Lawyers for Human Rights</a>&nbsp;reported that the well-known anti-junta activist Sirawit ‘Ja New’ Serithiwat; Panupong Sritananuwat, an activist from the&nbsp;<a href="https://prachatai.org/english/category/dao-din?page=1">Dao Din group</a>&nbsp;based at Khon Kaen University; and another law student who requested anonymity had received court notices.</p>

<p>Student activists from Khon Kaen University have been accused of contempt of court for participating in a peaceful gathering to demand Pai Dao Din’s release. &nbsp;</p> <p>On 17 March 2017,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.tlhr2014.com/th/?p=3741">Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR)&nbsp;</a>reported that activists from the activist <a href="https://prachatai.org/english/category/dao-din?page=1">Dao Din group</a>, based in Khon Kaen University, and New Generation Citizens (NGC), another political activist group in the region, received a court notice.</p>

<p>The Thai junta has refused to extend a permit for the BBC to run one of its major global transmission stations located in central Thailand.</p> <p>The BBC World Service&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bangkokbiznews.com/news/detail/744153">has stopped broadcasting programmes</a>&nbsp;from its transmission station located in Nakhon Sawan Province.</p> <p>The station had been broadcasting uncensored foreign-language news into authoritarian countries such as North Korea and China, and countries which still rely significantly on radio, such as Afghanistan and Pakistan.</p>

<p>The Appeal Court has refused to release an anti-junta student activist accused of lèse majesté.</p> <p>On 1 March 2017, the Appeal Court Region 4&nbsp;<a href="http://www.tlhr2014.com/th/?p=3582">confirmed the ruling of the Court of First Instance&nbsp;</a>not to release Jatuphat ‘Pai’ Boonpattararaksa, a law student and key member of the New Democracy Movement (NDM).</p>

<p>On 23 February 2017, the Supreme Court sentenced Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, a labour and democracy activist turned lèse majesté suspect, to six years in prison, ending his six year struggle against the charge. As a man of principle, Somyot was the first lèse majesté suspect in a decade to choose to fight until the end, rather than pleading guilty for a lighter jail term. Prachatai has gathered 14 facts about the man whose legal battle has sparked debate about Thailand’s controversial lèse majesté law.</p> <p></p>