The Military Court has detained a supporter of the eight abducted junta critics, who is accused by the junta legal team of lѐse majesté.
The Military Court of Bangkok on Saturday morning, 30 April 2016, granted a custody permission for the police to detain Burin Intin, a man who was arrested by the police on Wednesday evening for gathering with 15 other activists to show solidarity with the abducted junta critics.
Matichon Online reported yesterday that Col Burin Thongprapai, legal officers of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), formal name of the Thai junta, at 4:30 pm on Friday, 29 April 2016, took Burin to the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD).
Col Burin said then that the military invoked the NCPO’s Order No. 3/2015, which gives the regime absolute power to maintain national security, for arresting Burin on Wednesday night from Phayathai Police Station. He was under military custody since.
The junta’s legal officer said on Friday afternoon that Burin is a suspect of offences under Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lѐse majesté law, and Article 14/3 of the Computer Crime Act, a law on the importation of illegal information, added that the Military Court already issued an arrest warrant for Burin.
Col Burin told media that the military has been monitoring Burin’s facebook account titled ‘Burin Intin’ for a while as he usually posted anti-junta messages on it and reported that at 12:13 pm on 27 April, Burin posted a video clip online with the title ‘I want to get abducted, release our friends’ and when a person commented on the video, Burin responded with comments deemed defamatory to the monarchy.
On Thursday, the military searched the house of Burin and confiscated three computer CPUs and the ‘red bowl’ with the well wishing message from Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Prime Minister. The search was carried out after the Military Court issued an arrest warrant for Burin and the military reported to the TCSD about the case.
The authorities added that they are currently searching for a man called ‘Wan’, a student from Thammasat University who is a friend of Sirawit Serithiwat, a well known student activist from New Democracy Movement (NDM), as Burin told them that he gave his mobile phone to Wan before he was detained by the military.
Burin told the authorities that he only gave his mobile phone to Wan because he wanted Wan to charge the phone for him and did not intend to destroy information on it.
Matichon reported that Burin confessed to the authorities that he posted messages which were deemed defamatory to the monarchy online. He added that he joined Resistant Citizen, a well known anti-junta activist group in September 2015 and usually chatted with Sirawit and Sirawit’s mother via social network.
A soldier takes Burin Intin away from Phaya Thai Police Station, 27 April 2016 (file photo)