<p><a href="http://hrw.pr-optout.com/Tracking.aspx?Data=HHL%3d8-30%3d0-%3eLCE593719%26SDG%3c90%3a.&amp;RE=MC&amp;RI=4432086&amp;Preview=False&amp;DistributionActionID=95051&amp;Action=Follow+Link">Thailand</a>’s government should stop bringing trumped-up criminal charges against human rights lawyers to harass and retaliate against them, Human Rights Watch said today. Thailand’s friends, including the United States, should publicly call on the military junta to stop persecuting its critics.<br /></p>

<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>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>A human rights lawyer for the 14 well-known anti-junta youth activists detained in June and July 2015, has denied charges that she refused to cooperate with police officers.</p> <p>Sirikan Charoensiri, a lawyer from Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), met police officers at Chanasongkram Police Station in Bangkok on Tuesday, 9 February 2016, to hear the charges against her after she received a summons from the police station last week.</p>

<p>Police officers in plainclothes in northeastern Thailand, Isan, arrested a villager over a land dispute and allegedly abused her in an attempted eviction.</p>

<p>On 2 February 2016, human rights defender Ms&nbsp;<strong>Sirikan Charoensiri</strong>&nbsp;received a summons ordering her to report to Chanasongkram Police Station in Bangkok on&nbsp;<span data-term="goog_1334993938" tabindex="0">9 February 2016</span>. The human rights defender is accused of making a false police report and refusing to comply with an order of a competent official.</p>

<p>For the first time since the 2014 coup d’état, military prosecutors have dismissed lèse majesté charges against three suspects accused of defaming the Thai monarchy on Facebook.</p> <p>Sasinan Thamnitinan, a lawyer from Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), told Prachatai on Tuesday, 2 February 2016, that military staff of the Judge Advocate General’s Office had decided not indict Jaruwan E., 26, Anon, 22, and Chat, 20, accused of using a Facebook page under the name of Jaruwan to defame the King.</p>

<p>Police have summoned a lawyer for the well-known anti-junta 14 youth activists imprisoned in June and July 2015, accusing her of disobeying the orders of police officers. &nbsp;</p> <p>According to&nbsp;<a href="https://tlhr2014.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/sirikan-ndm/">Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (THLR)</a>, Sirikan Charoensiri, a TLHR lawyer, received two letters from Chanasongkram Police Station in Bangkok on Tuesday, 2 February 2016.</p>

<p>The Provincial Court in the eastern province of Trat has dismissed murder charges against three suspects in a PDRC bombing case, but sentenced one suspect to five years in jail for possessing illegal weapons. &nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p>Trat Provincial Court on Tuesday, 26 January 2016, dismissed murder charges against Watchara Krajangklang, Somsak Poonsawad, and Somsak Sunan, three suspects in the bombing case of a People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) anti-election protest in 2014.</p>

<p>Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) have pointed out that the legal procedure under the Military Court leading to the verdict passed on a single mother convicted under the lèse majesté law is ‘unlawful’ and violates the rights to a fair trial.</p>

<p>The Military Court has sentenced a 49-year-old accountant to 19 years in prison under the lèse majesté and sedition laws during a deposition hearing without informing her lawyer.</p>

<p dir="ltr">After the coup d’état in 22 May 2014, the National Council for Peace and Order had issued the NCPO announcement No. 37/2014 about offences under the jurisdiction of military courts, announcement No. 38/2014 about offences consisted of several connected acts under the jurisdiction of military courts, and announcement No. 50/2014 about weapons of war trial under the jurisdiction of military courts. These announcements included some offence to the power of military courts:</p>