<p>An officer of the Administrative Court has said that Somsak Jeamteerasakul, the embattled lèse majesté critic and ex-Thammasat lecturer in self-imposed exile, is not guilty of being absent without leave because he faced grave danger.</p>

<p>After the Defence Ministry gave the green light to the Cyber Security Bill yesterday, human rights organizations urged the government to reveal details of the bill for public scrutiny.</p> <p>Amnesty International (AI), iLaw, an internet based human rights advocacy group, and Thai Netizen Network (TNN), a civil society group advocating internet freedom, on Tuesday, 1 March 2016, issued a joint statement to demand that the authorities disclose to the public the Cyber Security Bill, the Protection of Personal Information Bill, and the amended draft of the Computer Crime Act.</p>

<p>The defence lawyer for a factory worker accused of lèse majesté for mocking the King’s dog requested the military prosecutors not to indict the suspect, saying that the lèse majesté law does not cover the King’s dog and the charge was politically motivated. &nbsp;</p> <p>Anon Nampa, a well know human rights lawyer, on Monday, 29 February 2016, submitted a letter to the military Judge Advocate General’s Office, calling for justice for Thanakorn S., a 27-year-old factory worker.</p>

<p>Media experts said that the controversial draft constitution will provide the authorities with control mechanisms to keep the media at bay in the name of national security. &nbsp;</p> <p>On Friday, 26 February 2016, Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) organised a public seminar on Alternatives for Media Reform under the New Charter at the Swissôtel Le Concorde in Bangkok.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Thai Police have ordered a seminar about the new draft constitution to be aborted, saying that it is against the junta’s political gathering ban. &nbsp;</p>

<div> <div>The Thai police are considering a further lèse majesté charge against Somsak Jeamteerasakul, in self-imposed exile in France, and the Thai PBS channel over a talk programme on the lèse majesté law.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The Tob Jod (The Answers) programmes were broadcast on Thai PBS, the only public TV channel in Thailand, on 11-14 March and 18 March 2013. Apart from Somsak, the episode on lèse majesté law featured Sulak Sivaraksa, an anti-lèse majesté law royalist, Surakiart Sathirathai, former Deputy Prime Minister, and Pol Gen Vasit Dejkunchorn. </div></div>

<p>A key member of an anti-establishment red shirt group in Isan, Thailand’s northeast, died of a stroke one day after being summoned by the military.</p> <p><a href="https://tlhr2014.wordpress.com/2016/02/25/Saksit_ubon/">Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR)</a>&nbsp;reported that on Tuesday, 23 February 2016, Saksit Kingmala, 52, a key leader of an anti-establishment red shirt group in Ubon Ratchathani called People Who Love [former Prime Minister] Thaksin Club, died at a local hospital from a stroke.</p>

<p>Thai police have threatened environmental activists demanding revocation of recent junta orders to weaken regulations on power plants and industries with the junta’s ban on political gatherings. Meanwhile the activists have vowed to persevere with their rally despite the risk of arrest.</p> <p>Police from Nanglerng Police Station in Bangkok on Wednesday, 24 February 2016, issued a letter banning a protest by an environmental group called the People’s Network for Sustainable Development (PNSD) which was planned for 25-28 February in front of the United Nations headquarters in Bangkok.</p>

<p>A well-known anti-junta academic currently in self-imposed exile has reported that the Thai junta has sent military officers to harass his family in Thailand.</p> <p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pavinchachavalpongpun/posts/710714485696984?pnref=story">Pavin Chachavalpongpun</a>, a fierce critic of the Thai junta, who is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Japan, posted on his Facebook status yesterday, 24 February 2016, that four military officers were sent to his family home in Bangkok.</p>

<p>Military prosecutors have charged suspects in an alleged Bike for Dad terrorist plot under the lèse majesté law; the suspects continue to plead innocent. &nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">Men claiming to be border police officers have visited the home of a Deep South activist who took part in compiling a recent report on the torture of Malay Muslims in the region. &nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr"><a href="https://tlhr2014.wordpress.com/2016/02/20/south_threaten/">Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR)</a> reported that at about 5 pm on Friday, 19 February 2016, a group of ten men in green uniforms visited the home of Anchana Heemmina, a local activist in the Duay Jai Group, in Songkhla Province.</p>

<p>High-ranking police officials including a well-known police spokesman will be prosecuted for allegedly installing a communications device atop Bangkok’s tallest building for a “suspicious purpose” during last August’s Bike for Mom event.</p> <p>Lt. Gen. Prawut Thavornsiri and other unnamed officers face prosecution for malfeasance after their case was forwarded to the national police chief today, according to deputy police chief Sriwarah Rangsitpramkul.</p>