<p>Khaosod English: A former separatist leader recently freed from prison has vowed to assist the Thai government's effort to quell the secessionist movement in Thailand's southern border provinces.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The Appeal Court sentenced an anti-establishment red shirt to almost 27 years in prison for possessing and offering to sell illegal weapons.</p> <p>On 17 July 2015, the Appeal Court on Ratchadaphisek Road of Bangkok sentenced Surachai Tevarat, aka Rang, a 31-year-old member of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) to 26 years and 8 months imprisonment.</p>

<p>Business operators on a tourist island in southern Thailand have urged the Thai authorities to halt plans to build a coal-fired power plant in the region and ‘go green’ for the sake of the tourism industry and the environment.</p> <p>On Thursday, 16 July 2015, local people on Ko Lanta, an island on the western Andaman Coast of Thailand off Krabi Province, came together to issue a joint statement to Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, junta leader and Prime Minister, calling on him to cancel plans to build a coal-fired power plant in the province. &nbsp;</p>

<p>An independent Thai human rights researcher has pointed out that the Thai junta’s order to halt the selection of candidates to an independent law reform agency cuts off ways for people to participate in national reform.</p>

<p>The Criminal Court granted bail to a punk musician after he was sentenced to a year in prison for spray-painting what looked like an anarchist symbol on the court’s name plate in Bangkok.</p>

<p>Thai Administrative Court ruled that an order from the Thai broadcasting authority to shut down a TV station affiliated with a red-shirt group was unlawful.</p> <p>According to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.matichon.co.th/news_detail.php?newsid=1437031729">Matichon Online</a>, on Thursday, 16 July 2015, the Administrative Court in Bangkok issued an injunction to allow<a href="https://www.facebook.com/peacetv.udd">&nbsp;Peace TV</a>, a TV station affiliated with the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), an anti-establishment red-shirt group, to continue broadcasting.</p>

<p>Villagers on Thailand’s northern border have called on state authorities to stop the expropriation of land that they have been using while a local official said that it is being done under orders from the junta. &nbsp; &nbsp;</p>

<p><a href="http://www.khaosodenglish.com/index.php">Khaosod English</a>: Thailand's military leader Gen Prayut Chan-ocha has assured the public that a new law restricting political gatherings won't affect any "innocent" or peaceful protests.</p>

<p>The Thai junta leader has invoked his authority under the Interim Constitution to put on hold the process of selecting new members of a law reform agency, saying that the upcoming constitution is already meant to reform the country.</p> <p>On Wednesday, 15 July 2015, the junta’s National Council of Peace and Order (NCPO) issued Order No. 20/2015 to stop the process of selecting new committee chairs of the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.prachatai.org/english/taxonomy/term/2521/all">Law Reform Commission of Thailand (LRCT)</a>, an independent state agency which promotes legal reforms.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1436851966&amp;section=11&amp;typecate=06">Khaosod English</a>: Thailand's Minister of Justice said he has asked the French ambassador to help extradite Thais charged with insulting the monarchy, a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison.</p> <p>Gen. Paiboon Khumchaya met with the ambassador, Thierry Viteau, at the Ministry of Justice yesterday.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The Thai Consulate in Germany threatened to withdraw donations to a German university in Frankfurt for inviting an anti-junta lecturer to talk about Thai politics. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>According to Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a fierce critic of the Thai junta who is a Thai Associate Professor at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Japan, the Thai Consulate in Frankfurt, Germany, on Tuesday, 14 July 2015, threatened to withdraw funding to the Goethe University of Frankfurt for inviting him to speak as a guest lecturer about Thai political development.</p>

<p>18 civil society organisations in the Deep South region of Thailand have urged Thai state authorities to stop the intimidation and suspension of rights of civil society workers.</p> <p>At the Muslim Attorney Centre (MAC) in the southern province of Pattani on Tuesday morning, 14 July 2015, 18 civil society organisations, members of the ‘Southern Border Provinces CSO Network for Peace’, came together to read a joint statement to demand that the Thai authorities stop the abuse of rights and intimidation.</p>