A political activist was taken into military custody Saturday morning for attempting to place a replica of the plaque commemorating the June 24, 1932, revolt at the spot where the original mysteriously disappeared from earlier this year.
Ekachai Hongkangwan, a 42-year-old activist working with political prisoners and lese majeste detainees, contacted a reporter at 8:48am to say he had been taken away by half a dozen police inside a nondescript van and was about to enter the 11th Military Circle in Bangkok, where opponents of the military regime are held in a special prison on the army base.
Ekachai said he brought a life-size bronze replica of the plaque which sat undisturbed for decades until it was secretly removed and replaced in April with another bearing a royalist message. He said he planned to place the replica atop the new plaque.
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