<p>The Provincial Court has sentenced seven villagers in northern Thailand to one year’s imprisonment for encroaching onto private property.</p> <p>The Provincial Court of the northern province of Lamphun on Wednesday, 25 May 2016, read the Supreme Court’s verdict, confirming the ruling of the Appeal Court to sentence seven villagers from Ban Phae Tai Village of Wiang Nong Long District of Lamphun to one year’s imprisonment without suspending the jail term for encroaching onto a private land plot of Inthanon Kankaset Company.</p>

<p>A land rights activist and leader of an embattled village community in the northeastern (Isan) province of Chaiyaphum has reportedly been missing for five days.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Thai authorities have issued notifications urging villagers allegedly encroaching into a protected area in Esaan, Thailand’s Northeast, to move out or risk eviction and charges.</p>

<p>The Provincial Court of the northeastern province of Sakon Nakhon has sent two villagers to prison for encroaching into national forest reserves while six others received suspended jail terms. &nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">A provincial court in Isan, Thailand’s Northeast, told villagers in a disputed area to leave their homes to make ways for the construction of Special Economic Zone (SEZs).</p> <p>According to the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), the provincial court of the Isan province of Nakhon Phanom on 24 August 2015 during the preliminary hearing told 33 villagers accused of encroaching into public land plots called ‘Kok Phu Kratae’ in Aaj Samat sub-district, Muang District, of province to relocate.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The court in Isan, Thailand’s Northeast, tried a rubber farmer accused of growing rubber trees in national park’s land plots. &nbsp;</p> <p>According to Chai Thongdeenok, a member of Thai Ban Phuraisit Sakon Nakhon, a local group which promotes land rights for the locals in the northeastern province of Sakon Nakhon, the court on Wednesday held a witness examination hearing of Sin Ngoenpakdee, a villager of Chad-Rabeab Village of Phu Phan District in the province.</p>

<p>The Thai military claimed the authority under Section 44 of the Interim Constitution to arrest villagers in eastern Thailand who refused to leave an area which the Thai Navy wants to use as a practice ground. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<div> <div>The military and police on Sunday detained at least four activists after they held a silent press briefing on the forced cancellation of a cultural event on land reform.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>At about 2 pm the activists were detained and taken to Chanasongkram Police Station. At around 4.30pm they were released with no charges.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Earlier on Sunday the activists held a silent press briefing named “No Talk Show under the Military Boot: When the military violates our rights to hold the talk show ‘Our land . . . </div></div>