BenarNews
Police in Thailand announced Wednesday that they had arrested 78 people this month – mostly Thais – who were suspected of smuggling in more than 260 migrant workers from Myanmar and other neighboring countries.
The crackdown on suspected traffickers of migrant workers came on orders from Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha last month, amid a wave of coronavirus infections, Police Gen. Suwat Changyodsuk, the national police chief, said at a news conference. Authorities had blamed the surge in COVID-19 cases on migrants who had entered the country illegally via the kingdom’s shuttered borders.
“The operations are focused on trafficking rings – brokers and their masterminds – who smuggle illegal workers in or out. We are not focused on suppressing the illegal workers because the government has a clear policy on bringing some of them into the labor system and letting them work,” Suwat said.
BANGKOK (Jan 24): Thailand recorded 198 new Covid-19 cases and one more death over the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections in the kingdom to 13,500 and 73 fatalities. The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) assistant spokeman Dr Apisamai Srirangsan said of the 198 new cases, 191 were local transmissions including 118 involving those visiting high-risk areas and 73 who were detected through active case detection.
AFP
A government official has lodged a complaint accusing a banned opposition leader of committing royal defamation and a computer crime through online comments where he expressed concerns about national efforts to acquire coronavirus vaccines.
Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the leader of the Future Forward Party and an icon of the Thai pro-democracy movement, was the target of the complaint by Newin Chorchaithip, the deputy minister for Digital Economy and Society, on Wednesday.
The complaint, filed with the police’s Technology Crime Suppression Division, accused Thanathorn of disseminating false criticisms of the government’s acquisition plan for COVID-19 vaccines. No charges had been filed as of Thursday, according to authorities.
now two lese majeste charges against him.
PPT posted yesterday on the then breaking news and the first case against him. In that case, he faces both a lese majeste charge and another of vandalizing property under Article 358 of the Criminal Code. In this case he “allegedly spray-painted text about taxes and the abolition of Section 112, ironically one of the offences he was accused of committing, over an image of royals and the nameplate of the university’s Rangsit campus in six spots in the area in total. The incident took place on Jan 10.”
The report also provides more details on the police action against him. It states that he was first taken into custody by Khlong Luang police at 9pm on 13 January. Sirichai said “he had asked to exercise his right to a lawyer but police denied his request.” Thailand’s police seem unconstrained by law or constitution.