<p dir="ltr">A criminal court has handed an additional eight-year jail term to a man who was previously sentenced to six years of imprisonment for lèse majesté.</p> <p>On 10 October 2016, the criminal court on Ratchadapisek Rd, Bangkok, handed an eight-year jail term to Piya J., a 48 year-old programmer, for an offence under Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse majesté law. He was accused of sending two emails with messages deemed defamatory to the King to Bangkok Bank under an online identity ‘Vincent Wang’.</p>

<p>Despite being accused of disrespecting the military court, an embattled lèse majesté suspect has refused to bow down, saying that the court should have defended democracy against coup-makers.</p> <p>On 4 October 2016, a defence lawyer for Sirapop (surname withheld for privacy concerns), 52, resubmitted his client’s closing statement to the Military Court of Bangkok,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.tlhr2014.com/th/?p=2358">Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported</a>.</p>

<div>A Thai deputy police chief has called Joshua Wong, the Hong Kong student activist, a threat to Thailand’s national security who should not be allowed to enter the country, adding there has been no pressure from any country. </div>

<p>The Chair of the Department of Public Prosecutor Commission (DPPC) has removed the Deputy Director-General of the DPPC after he supported a call to investigate corruption allegations against the junta leader’s brother.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The Deputy junta head has backed Bangkok’s plan to demolish the old community of Pom Mahakan as part of a controversial Chao Phraya River beautification plan.</p> <p dir="ltr">On 5 October 2016, Gen Prawit Wongsuwan, the deputy junta head and Defence Minister, presided as the president in the fifth meeting of a steering committee for public administration reform at the Government House, Bangkok, <a href="http://www.matichon.co.th/news/310439">Matichon Online reported</a>.</p>

<div>The junta head has said that pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong was not detained by the Thai authorities, but was rather just ‘flying over’ Thailand, adding that there is no difference between sending the activist to Hong Kong or Mainland China since both are the same country.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On 5 October 2016, Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and PM, said Thai immigration officials did not detain or arrest Hong Kong student activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung, a key leader of the Umbrella Revolution. </div>

<div>A group of students has staged a small protest demanding that the junta send student activist Joshua Wong safely back to Hong Kong. The prominent activist is expected to arrive in Hong Kong this afternoon. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</div> <div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On 5 October 2016, Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, together with other students from Chulalongkorn University, held a protest demanding that the junta release 19-year-old student activist Joshua Wong, a key leader of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement and Secretary-General of the Demosistō Party. </div></div>

<p><em><strong>Update</strong>:&nbsp;Thai junta rejects involvement in Joshua Wong’s detention. Lt Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd, the spokesperson of the Prime Minister's Office, said the government has no involvement with the detention against Wong but it is actually the judgement of immigration officials, reported BBC Thai.</em></p> <p>The Thai authorities have detained Joshua Wong, a leading student activist from Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, at the request of the Chinese government.</p>

<div> <div>The Thai junta leader has condemned the media for defaming the country internationally, after stories of an ethnic minority woman bathing in a pothole reached the foreign press. </div></div>

<p dir="ltr">The Royal Thai Army has warned that violence could return in the form of political dissidents possessing weapons stolen from the army during the 2010 political violence.</p> <p dir="ltr">On 3 September 2016, Col Winthai Suvaree, a spokesperson of the Royal Thai Army, announced that authorities are currently trying to retrieve weapons that were stolen during the April–May 2010 political violence,<a href="https://www.facebook.com/BBCThai/photos/a.1527194487501586.1073741828.1526071940947174/1828470634040635/?type=3&amp;theater"> BBC Thai reported</a>.</p>

<p>The military government Monday defended the expenditure of 20.9 million baht for the junta’s No. 2 general and his entourage to fly to an informal discussion with American military in Hawaii last week.</p> <p>The cost, which included 600,000 baht for&nbsp;in-flight dining, was to fly deputy junta chief Prawit Wongsuwan, also a former Defense Minister, and his entourage of 38 officials to Honolulu to attend the “ASEAN-US Defense Informal Meeting” from Thursday to Saturday, according to&nbsp;<a href="http://spm.thaigov.go.th/multimedia/onanong.y/Su59/su%2045.pdf">government records</a>.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The Thai Election Commissioner has confirmed the junta can legally dissolve parliament to resolve gridlock during the process of selecting a new Prime Minister, but questions whether such drastic measures would be worth it.</p>