The hunger striking activist’s mom has kneed in front of a prison insisting on seeing her son after the activist was again detained due to another charge.
On Friday, 19 August 2016, Jatuphat Boonpattaraksa, aka Phai, an anti-junta activist from the pro-democracy Dao Din group, was arrested at the provincial court of Phu Khiao District for participating in an anti-junta campaign on 22 May 2015. This is immediately after he was granted bail from another case related to anti-junta campaign in northeastern Chaiyaphum Province.
The activist has been detained for 13 days since the police arrested him on 6 August when he handed out anti-draft charter flyers at a market in Phu Khiao. Shortly after the arrest, he started a hunger strike because he asserted that his activity is lawful. The police indicted him under Article 61(2) of the the controversial Referendum Act for allegedly distributing materials that distorted the draft’s content.
On Thursday, the Chaiyaphum Provincial Court granted bail to Jatuphat after his lawyer submitted 30,000 bahts together with a lawyer license of Jatuphat's father as bail. However, as Jatuphat also faces three more accusations from participating in anti-junta campaigns in Khon Kaen and Bangkok, the Khon Kaen police took him in custody immediately.
Around 5.30 pm, while authorities tried to transfer him from the prison of Phu Khiao District to the northeastern province of Khon Kaen, where the complaint was filed, Jatuphat’s mother and sister kneed in front of the prison obstructing the transfer. The activist’s mother pleaded to the police to see her son in order to have him signed a document necessary for enrolling courses at Khon Kaen University, where Phai is a student at Law Faculty. Thursday is the last day for enrollment, added the mother.
“I asked [the police] politely but they refused. Isn’t it too much? Where is the justice? You told me to bail my son but when I do it, you detained my son again… It’s ok. If they don’t give me a proper answer, I will keep kneeing like this,” Jatuphat’s mother strongly stated.
Jutuphat’s mother and sister knee in front of the prison of Phu Khiao District
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