Thailand: Student activists___ lawyer harassed by police
Event- Country
- Thailand
- Initial Date
- Jun 27, 2015
- Event Description
Thai police officers attempted to search the car of a lawyer representing the 14 embattled student activists without a search warrant. At 1 am on Saturday, investigating officers from Chanasongkram Police Station in Bangkok attempted to search a car belonging to Sirikan Charoensiri, a lawyer from Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), who is one of the defence lawyers of the 14 embattled student activists in front of the Bangkok's Military Court. However, the lawyer refused to let the police officers carry out the search saying that in accordance with the law the officers must present a search warrant before conducting a search. The incident happened shortly after the Military Court detained the 14 student activists charged with defying the Thai junta's ban on political gatherings and Article 116 of the Criminal Code, the sedition law, for holding anti-junta activities. Despite Sirikan's objections, the police wanted to take the car to Chanasongkram Police Station After brief negotiations, at 1:20 am, the police told the lawyer that they would not take the car to the police station and would search the car later on Saturday morning. The police then attached a piece of paper to the car to guarantee that they would not arbitrarily open it. Sirikan, however, chose to remain cautious and guarded her car until the search. UPDATE: 29/ 06/ 2015 Thai police confiscate five phones from the 14 student activists' lawyer The Thai police confiscated five mobile phones after a search on a car of a defense lawyer of the 14 embattled anti-junta student activist while the lawyer pointed out that the search was unlawful. According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), at 3 pm on Saturday Pol Col Suriya Jamnongchok, an investigative officer of Samranraj Police Station in Bangkok searched a car of Sirikan Charoensiri, a lawyer from Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), who is one of the defence lawyers of the 14 embattled student activists in front of Bangkok's Military Court. The police officer reasoned that the search was for collecting objects that were used for illegal activities as evidence and things that were acquired illegally. After the search, the officer collected five mobile phones that were found in the lawyer's car some of which belong to the student activists who are now under detention, including, a tablet, TLHR reported. The police later brought all the evidences collected from the lawyer's car to Chanasongkram Police Station. Prior to the search, Sirikan at around 1 pm came to Samranraj Police Station and filed a complaint under Article 157 of the Thai Criminal Code, malfeasance in office, against the police, pointing out that the officers unlawfully confiscated her car for the search. The lawyer also pointed out to a police that the investigative officer who searched her car transported the evidences collected to the police station without sealing them, which was against normal searching procedures, and spent about 15 minutes to hand the evidences to the relevant authorities. While filing the complaint, Sirikan told the police to note down the unprofessional way in which the evidences were handled in the police's report because the electronic information on the devices confiscated can be easily interfered. However, the police did not accept the complaint. The police attempted the search Sirikan's car since 1 am on Saturday, but was not able to because of the lawyer's objection to allow the search without an official warrant from the court. Later, the officers obtained the warrant from the court at 11 am on Saturday and was able to carry out the search.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly
- HRD
- Lawyer
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 15.870032000000004
Longitude: 100.992541
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 27 June 2015, investigating officers from Chanasongkram Police Station in Bangkok attempted to search a car belonging to Mrs. Sirikan Charoensiri, a lawyer from Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), who is one of the defence lawyers of the 14 embattled student activists in front of the Bangkok's Military Court.