<p>The Criminal Court on Thursday ordered a businesswoman to be imprisoned for 12 days as she awaits trial on several grave offenses, including, most notably, insulting the monarchy.&nbsp;</p> <p>Although Monta Yokrattanakan, 56, has been embroiled in series of allegations of human trafficking and abusing justice system for the last week, the investigation took a dramatic turn today after police also charged her with royal defamation, a crime punishable by up to 15 years in jail.</p>

<div> <div>The Justice Minister has justified the use of shackles on student activists, asking rights defenders what would they do if unshackled prisoners escape, while a junta spokesperson said the use of shackles depended on officials’ personal discretion. &nbsp;&nbsp;</div> </div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Although the seven activists from the New Democracy Movement were already released, they have left criticism against Thailand’s justice system as the pictures of them being shackled by chain were widely spread throughout the media. </div>

<p>Civil society groups have urged lawmakers not to pass the new Computer Crime Bill, as it further violates the rights to freedom of expression and to privacy.</p> <p>Representatives from the Thai Netizen Network (TNN), an internet freedom advocacy group, on Thursday, 6 July 2016, submitted a petition to Peerasak Porjit, Deputy President of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA), urging the authorities to halt the process to pass the amended version of the Computer Crime Act.</p>

<div>The Administrative Court has provided the red-shirt TV station with a legal immunity allowing the station to continue broadcasting after the station’s licence was recently revoked for breaching the junta’s announcements.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On Wednesday, 6 July 2016, the Supreme Administrative Court granted Peace TV, the TV station run by red-shirt co-leaders, legal protection after the Communication Authority of Thailand (CAT) made the decision, two days prior, to revoke the broadcasting licence of the station for 30 days for breaching the junta’s announcements on media cens </div>

<p>After settling on a controversial plan to spend 36 billion baht on submarines, the Thai junta deputy head has announced that the regime will buy more tanks from China.</p> <p>Gen Prawit Wongsuwan, the deputy junta head and Defence Minister, on Wednesday announced that the Thai military will buy more tanks from China after Andrii Beshta, Ambassador of Ukraine to Thailand, informed the authorities that the delivery of the OPLOT tanks, which Thailand has already ordered, will be delayed, the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.tnamcot.com/content/507276">Thai News Agency reported</a>.</p>

<div> <div>After being banned in Myanmar a month ago, the film ‘Twilight Over Burma’ has also been banned from an upcoming film festival in Bangkok. The festival organizers said the film might endanger Thailand-Myanmar relations.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On Wednesday, 6 July 2016, Matichon Online <a href="http://www.matichon.co.th/news/201699">reported</a> that ‘Twilight Over Burma’, the love story of an ethnic Shan prince and an Austrian woman during a period of political unrest in Myanmar, was removed from the 4th Thailand International Film Destination Festival 2016. </div></div>

<p>The authorities in Isan, Thailand’s northeast, have fired a Deputy Village Head because he allowed a human rights rally to take place.</p> <p>Phanthep Saokoson, District Chief of Chum Phae District of Khon Kaen Province, on 1 July 2016 summoned Charun Saeram, the 57-year-old Deputy Village Head of Sam Pak Nam Village in the district, to his office and informed him that he had been removed from his position, <a href="http://www.tlhr2014.com/th/?p=859">Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported</a>.</p>

<div> <div>A group of villagers in Isaan have been summoned to a military camp as an alternative to facing criminal charges after they joined the red-shirt referendum watch campaign. </div></div>

<div><span style="text-align: left;">Thailand’s Office of the Auditor General has announced that they will distribute ‘magical scarves’ which will help safeguard public money in the fight against corruption.</span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <p style="text-align: left;">The Office of the Auditor General of Thailand on Tuesday, 5 July 2016, announced that they are preparing to distribute <em>Pha Yan</em>, scarves imprinted with magical symbols, for people who are trying to combat corruption,&nbsp;<a href="http://news.ch7.com/detail/182033/%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%87.%E0%B8%88%E0%B8%B</p> </a></p></div>

<p>After the Military Court ordered the release of seven democracy activists on Tuesday, only six have been freed.</p> <p>At around 8:30 am on Wednesday, 6 July 2016, the Department of Corrections released six of the seven democracy activists accused of violating the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) Head’s Order No. 3/2015, the junta’s ban on political gatherings of five or more persons, and the controversial Referendum Act for distributing campaign flyers on the upcoming draft constitution referendum.</p>

<div> <div>A recent political survey shows an increase in the number of voters who are still undecided whether they should vote in the August referendum or not.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On Sunday, 3 July 2016, NIDA Poll <a href="http://nidapoll.nida.ac.th/index.php?op=polls-detail&amp;id=415">published</a> the result of the sixth survey on the upcoming draft constitution referendum, revealing that 62.80 per cent of the respondents are still undecided whether they should vote or not, which is almost double the first survey’s result, while 3.07 per cent of respondents will vote but have n </div></div>

<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>