The Criminal Court on Monday for the second time rejected a bail request of Apichat (last name withheld due to privacy concerns). Apichat was arrested during an anti-coup protest and was charged with defying the military junta’s orders and later, lèse majesté.
The suspect’s mother had prepared 500,000 baht in cash and a Premium Savings Certificate of the Graduate Volunteer Programme worth 500,000 baht for the bail request, which was rejected because of the flight risk.
In the first bail attempt, the court rejected a bail request using a guarantee from Deputy Rector of Thammasat University Parinya Thewannaruemitkul, reasoning that their relationship is not as close as that of relatives.
Apart from the charge of defying the military junta’s orders, the graduate law student from Thammasat University was charged with offences under Article 112, or the lèse majesté law, and Article 14 of the Computer Crime Act for defaming the monarchy and spreading lèse majesté content on a computer system. The charges came after he was detained for seven days for protesting the coup. The police claimed they had received tip-offs about his lèse majesté Facebook posts.
Arrested on May 23 when he joined the anti-coup protest in front of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC), near Siam Square, Apichat, 25, is now detained at Bangkok Remand Prison.
He is also an official of the Law Reform Commission of Thailand, an independent state agency.
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