In the second successive year after the late military coup, 2015 saw a large number of civilians tried under the military justice and the rule of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), junta-ruling body, including offences against Article 112 (lèse majesté), Article 116 (sedition) and breaches of the Announcements or Orders of the NCPO which have been used to stifle any dissent or the exercise of the right to freedom of expression on political issues.
Meanwhile, people who have had nothing to do with political activities have been criminalized on offences concerning illegal possession or use of firearms, ammunitions or explosives. They have been tried in the military court in a large number as well. According to the Judge Advocate General’s Department (JAG)’s information, from 22 May 2014 – 30 September 2015, there have been 1,408 civilians tried in the military court including 1,629 alleged offenders/defendants.¹
In 2015, the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) has worked on 42 court cases. In total, since the 2014 coup, we have been handling 69 cases. Toward the year’s end, we want to highlight the ten most notorious cases under the military court. It may reflect an overview of problems under the military justice and the rule of the NCPO.
It starts from the military personnel being the persons who report the case accusing a person of committing the crime, carrying out the arrest, participating in an interrogation, prosecuting the case by the Judge Advocate and adjudicating the case by military judges in military court as well as the detaining individuals in military barracks. The control of all procedures is basically subjected to the power of the military. It could be said that such justice system is a “camouflaged justice process”. The following cases simply illustrate the process that Thai society has been through in the past year.² อ่านเพิ่มเติม
THAI LAWYERS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS 