Crime

Students charged after tying white bows around Bangkok monuments

Published

Wednesday, June 10, 2020 14:27

PHOTO: BBC

3 students were sent to the police station after tying big white bows to the gate of the Democracy Monument in Bangkok. The students called on the Thailand and Cambodia governments to address the abduction of an exiled Thai political activist.

The students were charged for violating the Road Traffic Act by tying the bows, according to Coconuts Bangkok. The Student Union of Thailand posted a live stream yesterday from the protest showing police removing the ribbon and taking students to the police department (below). The group also posted photos of white ribbons tied to objects throughout Bangkok.

Political activist 37 year old Wanchalearm Sataksit was living in exile in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. The Human Rights Watch claim Sataksit was dragged into a black car last week by a group of armed men and has been missing since. His sister was talking to him at the time on the phone. He ran an anti-government Facebook page. Thai police issued an arrest warrant in 2018 accusing him of violating the Computer-Related Crime Act for writing a post “inciting unrest”.

The Cambodian police announced yesterday that they will investigate Sataksit’s disappearance. The Royal Thai Police has refused to investigate the alleged abduction, one saying “This did not take place on Thai soil … Thai authorities do not have the authority to meddle.”

The former deputy director of the National Intelligence Agency says Thailand doesn’t have the resources to investigate, and urges people not to assume Sataksit has been abducted and killed.

“An abduction is a high-risk operation and needs a superpower nation to do it … Thailand is not a superpower.”

SOURCE: Coconuts Bangkok | Bangkok Post | Bangkok Post | Human Rights Watch

ที่อนุสาวรีย์ประชาธิปไตย

Posted by สหภาพนักเรียน นิสิต นักศึกษาแห่งประเทศไทย – Student Union of Thailand on Monday, June 8, 2020

Get more from The Thaiger

📱 Download our app on Android or iOS
👋 Have your say on our Thailand forums
🔔 Subscribe to our daily email newsletter
📺 Subscribe / Join YouTube for daily shows
👍 Like/Follow us on Facebook
🐦 FOLLOW us on Twitter
📷 FOLLOW us on Instagram

Related Topics:activism Cambodia crime Police Wanchalearm Satsaksit

Join the conversation and have your say on Thailand news published on The Thaiger.

Thaiger Talk is our new Thaiger Community where you can join the discussion on everything happening in Thailand right now.

Please note that articles are not posted to the forum instantly and can take up to 20 min before being visible. Click for more information and the Thaiger Talk Guidelines.

Create an Account

1 Comment

Toby Andrews

Monday, June 22, 2020 at 10:58 pm

Violating the road traffic act. In what respect?
Littering might have been just as good from the police intent on making a inoffensive protest, criminal.
An activist against the Thai government has disappeared. who are the likely culprits?

Reply

Caitlin Ashworth

Caitlin Ashworth is a writer from the United States who has lived in Thailand since 2018. She graduated from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and media studies in 2016. She was a reporter for the Daily Hampshire Gazette In Massachusetts. She also interned at the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia and Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida.

Up Next

New Normal for property developers as marketing moves online

Don't Miss

Deputy army chief proposes 15 day trial of lifting curfew