Military searches home of anti-junta student activist

Military officers have reportedly searched the home of a well-known anti-junta student activist currently facing an arrest warrant.

Resistant Citizen, an anti-junta activist group, reported on its Facebook page that at around 3 pm on Thursday, 14 January 2016, 5-6 military officers from an unidentified unit searched the home of Sirawit Seritiwat, a 23-year-old student activist from Thammasat University without a search warrant while only Sirawit’s grandmother was present.

Resistant Citizen added that the officers took away a box where the activist stores train tickets which he collects and told his grandmother that if he does not report to a police station, he will not be granted bail once he is arrested.

Yesterday, the Military Court of Bangkok issued arrest warrants for Sirawit Serithiwat, 23, Chonticha Jaeng-rew, 22, Chanoknan Ruamsap, 22, Abhisit Sapnaphapan, 29, Korakoch Saengyenpan, 23, and Thanet Anantawong, 25.

The warrants were approved after the Railway Police Station in Thonburi requested the court’s permission to arrest the activists.

The six are among 11 young activists who are accused of violating the junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) Order No. 3/2015, which prohibits political gatherings of five or more persons, after they participated in a failed excursion to Rajabhakti Park in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province on 7 December 2015 to investigate corruption allegations at the park.

Last week on 8 January 2016, Sirawit and five other activists went to the police station. However, they refused to report, saying that they did nothing wrong and were only exercising their rights as active citizens.

Out of the 11, Sirawit and Cholticha have already been charged with violating the junta’s political gathering ban as a result of their previous political activities.

Military officers detain Sirawit and other anti-junta activists en route to Rajabhakti Park in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province on 7 December 2015 (file photo)

 

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