Thai military abducted an administrator of an anti-junta facebook page who was reported missing since last week, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR).
TLHR on Monday, 14 March 2016, issued a public statement, urging the authorities to immediately release Sarawut Bamrungkittikhun, a facebook administrator of a page titled ‘Peod Praden’ (Open Issues).
TLHR reported in the statement that about 30 military and police officers on 9 March 2016 arrested Sarawut from his house in Surat Thani Province in southern Thailand before taking him to an unknown location.
At press time, his current whereabout is still unknown.
Under the junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO)’s Order No. 3/2015, security officers can detain individual for a maximum period of seven days without issuing an arrest warrant or revealing the location of the detention facility.
The human rights lawyer in the statement denounced such order, pointing out that it is arbitrary and is a serious violation of human rights guaranteed under International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in which Thailand is a state party of.
TLHR added that such measure is also against International Covenant for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (CED), which Thailand has signed, but not ratified as well.
Earlier, BBC Thai reported on Sunday, 13 March 2016, that Col Piyapong Klinphan, deputy head of the Public Relations Center of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), announced that the authorities do not know about the alleged disappearance of Sarawut
Col Piyapong said that he does not know for the time being whether Sarawut was taken by the military officers for a so-called ‘attitude adjustment’ session or not.
The officer added that under the normal procedure, the NCPO is open when it wants to summon individuals for attitude adjustment sessions. He implied that there are, however, exceptions.
Sarawut Bamrungkittikhun (Photo from Sarawut's facebook profile)