<p>A man in Isaan, northeastern Thailand, has been sent for a psychological examination over a ‘no vote’ campaign while policemen raided another northeasterner’s home over a ‘vote no’ t-shirt.</p> <p>Police officers of Phibun Mangsahan District in Ubon Ratchathani Province on Tuesday, 26 July 2016, arrested Wichan Phuwihan, a 48-year-old man from Bangkok, at the district market.</p> <p>Wichan was arrested for shouting at people not to turn up for the 7 August public referendum on the draft constitution.</p>

<p dir="ltr">A Deputy Prime Minister has said that a key member of a progressive law academic group might be prosecuted under the Referendum Act for campaigning for ‘vote no’.</p>

<p>The Thai authorities have searched the homes of leading anti-establishment red shirt figures in northern Thailand in the hunt for the persons who sent letters criticising the junta-sponsored draft charter.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The Thai authorities threatened to sue a human rights institute of one of Thailand’s leading universities over infographics about the public referendum on the draft charter.</p>

<p>The Thai military prohibited discussants at a public forum in Isaan, Thailand’s northeast, to talk about politics, referendum, and the lèse majesté law. The authorities however ironically allow them to talk about human right issues only.<br /></p>

<p>The military in northern Thailand has confiscated over 3,000 letters allegedly campaigning against the junta-sponsored draft constitution and is now hunting for the senders.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Soldiers and police officers in Chiang Mai intimidated a staff of Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), asking whether he was distributing booklets against the junta-sponsored draft constitution or involving with Prachatai website.</p>

<p>A Provincial Court has freed a Prachatai journalist and pro-democracy activists arrested over campaign leaflets for the draft charter referendum. &nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p>The Provincial Court of Ratchaburi Province on Monday afternoon, 11 July 2016, granted permission to the police to detain Taweeesak Kerdpoka, a Prachatai journalist, three anti-junta NDM activists, Pakorn Areekul, Anucha Rungmorakot and Anan Loked, and Phanuwat Songsawadchai, a student activist from Maejo University, Phrae campus.</p> <p>However, at around 4:30 pm the court granted bail for each of the five for 140,000 baht.</p>

<p>The Military Court has given a well-known anti-establishment red-shirt country singer an extra three years and four months’ imprisonment for lèse majesté to add to an earlier sentence of seven years and six months.</p> <p>The Military Court of Bangkok on Monday morning, 11 July 2016, handed Thanat Thanawatcharanon, 58, aka Tom Dundee, a country singer turned red-shirt activist, five years in prison for offences under Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse majesté law.</p> <p>The sentence, however, was reduced by one third to three years and four months after Thanat pleaded guilty.</p>

<p>UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson has expressed &nbsp;the recent reports of restrictions on the freedoms of expression and assembly in Thailand ahead of the referendum on the draft constitution to be held on 7 August.&nbsp;<br /><br />The Deputy Secretary-General met H.E. Mr. Virasakdi Futrakul, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Thailand, in New York on June 29. See a readout from their meeting at&nbsp;<a href="http://ow.ly/6vA1301XIFW" rel="nofollow nofollow" target="_blank">http://ow.ly/6vA1301XIFW</a><br /></p>

<p>The Thai police detained seven student activists after failing to force a member of the activist group to remove a t-shirt with a message saying ‘vote no’ in the draft charter referendum.</p> <p>At least five police officers in uniform and plainclothes on Tuesday afternoon, 5 July 2016, detained seven students of an activist group called the Association of Students for Society from Ramkhamhaeng University, Bangkok.</p>

<p>The Military Court has released the seven embattled democracy activists after detaining them for nearly two weeks.</p> <p>The Military Court of Bangkok at around 3:30 pm on Tuesday, 5 July 2016, refused the police permission to detain the seven activists, most of whom are affiliated with the New Democracy Movement (NDM): Rangsiman Rome, Korakoch Saengyenpan, Thirayut Napnaram, Somsakol Thongsuksai, Yuttana Dasri, Nantapong Panmat and Anan Loket.</p> <p>According to officers from the Department of Corrections, the seven will be released on Wednesday morning.</p>