The junta’s inhumane use of lese majeste

Reports yesterday of the bailing and immediate re-arrest of Nattatida Meewangpla give another insight into the inhumane nature of the lese majeste law and its (mis)use by the totalitarian military regime.

Prachatai reports that on 24 July, Bangkok’s Military Court bailed Nattatida, along with “Nares Intharasopa, Wasana Buddee, and Nuttapat Onming, suspects in the 2015 Criminal Court bombing…”.

Nattatida is “a key witness of the 2010 military crackdown” and the murders at Wat Pathum Wanaram.

When “arrested” in 2015, she was abducted by military thugs and The Dictator then lied about it.

The four who were initially bailed this week “were among at least 15 people charged with terrorism and criminal association for alleged involvement in the court bombing on 7 March 2015. The four have been imprisoned for more than two years.”

At the time of the arrests, PPT posted on how the arrests seemed bogus.

Despite being bailed, “police refused to release Nattatida and Wasana. Nattida is currently detained at the Crime Suppression Division while Wasana is being held at Chokchai District Police Station in Bangkok.”

Nattatida is apparently detained as “she was also accused under Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse majesté law, over a message posted on 17 March 2015 on the Line chat application.” Yet she was taken into military custody on 11 March 2015.

As Khaosod reports, and as we have on our short page on her case, back in March 2015, she was “charged in two separate cases: conspiring with a terror group behind an alleged bomb plot at Bangkok’s Criminal Court and insulting the monarchy.”

We can only guess that denying her freedom is because she has “failed” to plead guilty to the lese majeste charge, so that her detention must continue. That’s the inhumane pattern.