Thailand’s junta yesterday said it had captured a fugitive anti-coup leader, as the ruling generals seek to stamp out any criticism of their seizure of power.
Sombat Boonngamanong, who spearheaded an online campaign to stage illegal flashmob rallies against the military takeover, was arrested late on Thursday in Chonburi, southeast of Bangkok, army spokeswoman Sirichan Ngathong said.
“We have a team who tracked him through the Internet,” she told reporters.
Photo: EPA
Sombat faces charges of defying an order to report to the junta, which carries a possible punishment of two years in prison.
He is expected to be detained at an army facility for up to one week for questioning and then brought before a Thai military court.
Sombat was one of several hundred politicians, activists, academics and journalists summoned by the junta, formally known as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) following the coup on May 22.
Those who attended were detained in secret locations for up to a week and ordered to cease political activities.
DEFIANT
Sombat, a prominent democracy activist, refused to turn himself in, instead posting a message on Facebook saying: “Catch me if you can.”
Since then, Sombat has urged followers to stage peaceful public rallies, flashing the three-finger salute from The Hunger Games films that has become a symbol of defiance against the junta.
“The military manhunt and arrest of Sombat shows the NCPO’s shameful refusal to recognize basic rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch.
“Next we’ll see a travesty of justice as the NCPO drags him in front of a military tribunal that resembles a kangaroo court more than a proper court of law,” he said.
Sombat is the leader of a faction of the Red Shirts movement, which broadly supports fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister, Yingluck, who was deposed as prime minister last month.
His supporters reacted to news of his arrest with dismay.
“What has he done wrong? Did he kill anybody?” one follower wrote on his Facebook page.
NO BAIL
A former minister in Yingluck’s ousted Cabinet who also refused to answer the summons appeared in a military court yesterday and was denied bail, his family said.
Former Thai education minister Chaturon Chaisang was detained by soldiers in a dramatic swoop on a press conference late last month, minutes after criticizing the coup.
If convicted, he could be imprisoned.
“He shouldn’t be put in jail just because he has different views to the junta,” his sister Titima Chaisang told reporters.
Yingluck was herself summoned and held temporarily at an undisclosed location after the coup. The junta says she has since been released and allowed to return home although she remains under military supervision.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese