No action against anti-coup student protesters: NCPO

[Lite Beer]

COUP ANNIVERSARY
No action against anti-coup student protesters: NCPO
THE SUNDAY NATION

Student protesters console one another after their release at Pathum Wan police station yesterday.

BANGKOK: -- THE National Council for Peace and Order will not take any special action against more than 30 students staging symbolic anti-coup protests to mark the first anniversary of the May 22 coup, NCPO spokesman Winthai Suvari said yesterday.

He said they would not be asked to attend "attitude adjustment" sessions because the government did not want to create conditions that may lead to more issues.

He denied that security officials had physically assaulted the students. Winthai warned social media users against forwarding messages and pictures, smearing and vilifying security officials claiming they had attacked the students.

Pol Colonel Jarut Sarutyaporn, the superintendent of Pathumwan Police Station, said all students who had staged a protest outside Bangkok Art and Culture Centre on Friday had been released without being charged after keeping their personal information.

Police would later scrutinise security camera footage and question witnesses at the scene. If the students were found to have committed any offence, they would be summoned to face charges.

After being released at 6am yesterday, the students stood arm in arm and sang a song with supporters who waited outside the police station all night.

Rangsiman Rom, a Thammasat University student, said that though their activity is legal the police were treating them as illegal.

Meanwhile, a group of seven Khon Kaen university students calling themselves Dow Din were released after posting Bt7,500 bail each.

They staged the anti-coup protest, holding placards at the Khon Kaen city pillar shrine on Friday.

They were taken to the Patcharin military camp to undergo attitude adjustment but they refused to attend the session.

They later were taken to Khon Kaen Police Station and charged with violating the NCPO order No 3/58. They were detained at the station till 11pm on Friday. About 60 villagers, students and environmentalists gathered at the police station to pressure the police to release them

The seven are Chatupat Bunpat-taraksa, Apiwat Suntararak, Payu Bunsopon, Panupong Srithananu-wat, Suwicha Thipangkorn, Supachai Pookrongploy, Wasant Setsith.

They refused an offer from their university lecturers to bail them out with their state official positions.

They were detained at the police station till yesterday morning before being released with money contributed by the Confederation of Students.

Chatupat, or Pai, was arrested in November last year after his three-finger, anti-coup salute when Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was delivering a policy speech to government officials.

He said he believed he had the right to express his belief and what he did was not illegal. He insisted he would continue to be firm in his ideology.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/No-action-against-anti-coup-student-protesters-NCP-30260812.html

-- The Nation 2015-05-24

[impulse]

I'm sure these kids and their families are relieved that they're back out in the world, fingernails and heads intact.

Heck, if they tried the same thing on public land "back home" in the land of the free (and the home of the brave), they could be facing some serious $$$ fines for not having their assembly permit arranged 30 days in advance, not providing enough porta-pottis for the expected crowd, no off duty cops on hire for security, and not paying for emergency services personnel to be standing by.

Edited May 24, 2015 by impulse

[Just1Voice]

I'm sure these kids and their families are relieved that they're back out in the world, fingernails and heads intact.

Heck, if they tried the same thing on public land "back home" in the land of the free (and the home of the brave), they could be facing some serious $$$ fines for not having their assembly permit arranged 30 days in advance, not providing enough porta-pottis for the expected crowd, no off duty cops on hire for security, and not paying for emergency services personnel to be standing by.

You want to bash America so badly, that you write a post that is 95% pure bulls**t.

[EnglishJohn]

Oh how the red-shirts wish some people would be arrested and tortured by the Junta so they can spit their bile without looking stupid every time they are released quickly and unharmed.

[Eric Loh]

No need for further action when intimidation, teasered and heavy handed use of physically force being used. The message is loud enough.

[impulse]

No need for further action when intimidation, teasered and heavy handed use of physically force being used. The message is loud enough.

If they had cheap Chinese tasers back in the '60s and '70s, hippies would have been tasered instead of tear gassed.

Physical force on the part of an adversary is an OBJECTIVE of passive resistance. (Violence, not so much. But I'm not reading about violence)

They all seem to be intact with nobody too bruised up, nobody limping, nobody gone missing, and no fingernails ripped out.

I salute them for protesting, and I salute the junta for handling it without violence.

Edited May 24, 2015 by impulse

[yellowboat]

Oh how the red-shirts wish some people would be arrested and tortured by the Junta so they can spit their bile without looking stupid every time they are released quickly and unharmed.

You are for detaining and charging these students, so long as they are not abused physically ? Do you think what they are doing is wrong ? More than half the country are red shirts. You have a problem with half the country ? These junta loving westerners defy understanding.

[metisdead]

An off topic post has been removed.

[tbthailand]

Oh how the red-shirts wish some people would be arrested and tortured by the Junta so they can spit their bile without looking stupid every time they are released quickly and unharmed.

Oh how the red-shirts wish some people would be arrested and tortured by the Junta...

too late, it's already happened.

... every time they are released quickly and unharmed.

re: unharmed, you didn't read the other reports about the arrests, did you?

as for released, that is on bail, ....

personally, I'm wondering if they will be convicted in a military court of just a rigged civilian one...

in addition to the point that they should never have been arrested in the first place.

[Srikcir]

No doubt the Junta reminded the male protest students that they will be subjected to mandatory military conscription. If they thought their rights as civilians were being threatened, just wait until they are "members" of the Royal Thai Army.