Military prosecutors indicted suspects of the alleged Bike for Dad terrorist plot with the lèse majesté law while the suspects plead innocent.
Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported that on Tuesday, 23 February 2016, Benjarat Meetian, a defense lawyer of suspects of the alleged Bike for Dad terrorist plot, Nattapon Na-wanlae, Wanlop Boonchan, and Weerachai Chaboonmee, visited her clients at the remand facility in the 11th Military Circle on Rama V Rd., Bangkok.
The lawyer informed the suspects that the staff judge advocate of the military prosecutor’s office indicted them of offences under Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse majesté law.
In additional to the the lèse majesté charge, the three suspects are accused of crimes under Article 14 of the 2007 Computer Crime Act for allegedly contacting each other online while planning to stage an attack on the auspicious cycling rally for the King.
The two were arrested and detained since late November 2015. Pol Gen Srivara Rangsibrahmanakul, Deputy police chief, told media last year that there are nine suspects on the case in total most of whom are associated with the ‘Khon Kaen Model’ uprising case, the alleged plot of the an anti-establishment red shirt group in Khon Kaen to take up arms to rebel against the coup-maker in 2014.
The Pol Gen added then that one of the operations of the foiled terrorist plot is a plan to assassinate Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and Prime Minister.
Yesterday, Benjarat told TLHR that the three were devastated upon hearing that they were indicted and that they maintain that they are innocent.
She added that one of the suspects informed her that he was summoned by the authorities as witness on the case, but when he reported himself in the authorities arrested him.
The defence lawyer also reported that she and her clients have no freedom to talk by themselves during the visit because two military officers were monitoring their conversation all the time.
In December 2015, Maj Gen Wicharn Jodtaeng, the head of the law office of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), and Col Burin Thongprapai, a member of the military Judge Advocate General’s Department, filed a criminal defamation charge against Benjarat.
The military officers filed the complaint against Benjarat after she filed a complaint on 29 November 2015 under Articles 172, 173, 174, 181, and 328 against Maj Gen Wicharn and Pol Gen Sriwarah Rangsipramkul, the Deputy Police Chief, for allegedly filing false charges and defaming her client, Thanakrit Thongngernperm, another suspect on the same case.
Despite the fact that Thanakrit has been in detention for more than a year since shortly after the 2014 coup d’état as he is one of the 26 suspects in the ‘Khon Kaen Model’ uprising case, the police claimed that he contacted other suspects via mobile phones from the prison cells.