Anuwat Tinarat, a local politician and red-shirt leader from northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima Province (commonly known as ‘Khorat’) has been charged with lèse majesté under Article 112. Sulak Sivaraksa has been called as a witness.
Anuwat is a former president of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), the main faction in the anti-establishment red-shirt movement, former head of Bua Lai District and former deputy chief executive of the Provincial Administration Organization (PAO).
The charge was brought against him at Pho Klang Subdistrict Police Station by Lt Col Kraidech Kongsanit. The criminal case number is 781/2014.
The police last week summoned Sulak Sivaraksa, a renowned royalist and lèse majesté critic, to give his opinion as an academic whether the speech made by the suspect constituted lèse majesté.
In early March, the Nakhon Ratchasima PAO was pressured by supporters of the anti-election People’s Democratic Reform Committed (PDRC) in the province to remove Anuwat from his post after a fierce speech at a red-shirt rally in late February.
“Korat People Who Fed Up”, a Facebook page of Nakhon Ratchasima PDRC supporters, accused Anuwat of defaming the King and threatening to separate the North East and the North from the rest of Thailand with Nakhon Ratchasima as the capital of the red shirts.