Thai police charge anti-junta protesters with sedition

BANGKOK: Fifteen anti-junta activists were charged with sedition Thursday, a crime carrying seven years in jail, their lawyer said, for staging a protest this week to mark the fourth anniversary of the last coup by Thailand's generals.
The protest on Tuesday was small by the standards of Thailand's rambunctious street politics, but still dominated the headlines in a country wearying of junta rule.
A few hundred people tried unsuccessfully to march on the seat of government in Bangkok to call for promised elections, a poll which the junta keeps pushing back.
The suspects included protest leaders Rangsiman Rome, Ekachai Hongkangwan and Sirawith Seritiwat — perennial thorns in the side of the military which toppled the civilian government on May 22, 2014.
The junta has since banned protests and political gatherings of more than five people.
On top of sedition, the activists were also charged with the "illegal gathering of more than 10 people, obstructing traffic and causing a disturbance", Pawinee Chumsri, of Thai Lawyers for Human Rights who are representing the group, told AFP.
Sedition is punishable by a maximum of seven years in prison.
All 15 were later granted bail by a court on condition they do not join future political protests.
Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch, said the legal action against "peaceful protesters" represents the junta's ongoing reflex "to scare the Thai public into submission".
Prayut Chan-O-Cha, the former army chief who is now prime minister, has hinted elections will be held in February next year.
But his timetable for polls has slipped several times and his opponents are unconvinced elections will be held soon.
Large sections of society — including the Bangkok middle class — have tired of rule by a conservative military that has intruded into the lives of ordinary people whilst overseeing a widening of the kingdom's rich-poor wealth gap.
Critics say in four years the junta has been opaque in its financial dealings, seeded wide patronage networks and failed to address rampant corruption — despite seizing power from the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra vowing to do so. — AFP