Thailand Charges Woman for Posting ‘Seditious’ Facebook Photo

Thai authorities have arrested a woman for sedition over a photo she posted on Facebook, drawing criticism from rights activists as another move by the junta to silence peaceful dissent.

Theerawan Charoensuk, 57, was arrested Tuesday and released on bail pending a military trial, after posting a photo of herself holding up a red plastic bowl inscribed with Thai New Year’s greetings from ousted Prime Ministers Thaksin Shinawatra and Yingluck Shinawatra. Red is the color associated with the Shinawatras’ political party.

Theerawan’s arrest came on the day that Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-Cha issued a decree granting the military broader powers to arrest and detain people.

“Sedition charges for a Facebook photo expressing symbolic support for Thailand’s political opposition shows the military junta’s utter disregard for peaceful dissent,” New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday in a statement.

The arrest over the red bowl seen in the picture demonstrates that the junta’s intolerance of dissent has “reached the point of absolute absurdity,” HRW Asia Director Brad Adams said.

“When military courts try people for posting photos with holiday gifts from deposed leaders, it’s clear that the end of repression is nowhere in sight,” he added.

‘Is it legal to support an outlaw?’

On Tuesday, Prayuth, a retired army general who replaced Yingluck Shinawatra as prime minister following a military coup in May 2014, told reporters that the bowl was inscribed with the name of a fugitive, which is an act of sedition. He was referring to ex-PM Thaksin who lives in exile.

“Look at the inscribed materials, they are of an outlaw. Is it legal to support an outlaw, a fugitive?” Prayuth said.

“The sedition here means [Theerawan] does not obey the laws,” he added.

A military court in the northern province of Chiang Mai, a stronghold of the Shinawatras, freed Theerawan on bail set at 100,000 baht (U.S. $2,780), pending a military trial. She faces up to seven years in prison, if found guilty of the sedition charges.

Journalist barred from attending press event abroad

Her arrest occurred amid a growing atmosphere of fear in junta-ruled Thailand, which has seen a clamp-down by the military on civil liberties, public protests and free speech.

This week the junta denied a journalist’s request to travel to Finland in order to attend an event in May marking World Press Freedom Day.

Pravit Rojanaphruk, a senior writer at Khaosod English, a Thai news website, said Wednesday that the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) – the official name for the junta – had rejected his request to allow him to leave the country for the Finnish trip.

“I heard of the denial by phone this morning. The NCPO did not reply in writing and has not clarified the reason for denial,” Pravit told BenarNews.

Since the junta toppled Yingluck’s government two years ago, Pravit, a former columnist for The Nation newspaper, twice was summoned by the authorities for so-called “attitude adjustment” detention sessions after he had published articles that were deemed as critical of the military-controlled government.

Expansion of police-like powers

Meanwhile, Prayuth Chan-o-cha declared in the Royal Gazette on Tuesday that he was authorizing military officers to take on new police-like powers. These would allow soldiers to arrest people suspected of committing 27 types of crimes, including defamation loan sharking and gambling, the Associated Press reported.

The powers give soldiers the authority to summon, arrest and detain suspects in non-prison facilities, search people’s premises and seize assets at their discretion.

The new powers are an extension of Article 44, a clause in Thailand’s interim constitution, which the junta invoked last year and that granted the military sweeping law-enforcement powers, according to reports.

"These measures are another affirmation of the strengthening of a military state," Sunai Phasuk, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Thailand, told Reuters, referring to the military’s new powers.