Thai Pro-Democracy Activist’s Disappearance Stirs Call for Probe

(Bloomberg) -- Calls are growing for a probe into the disappearance of an exiled democracy activist and critic of the military-backed Thai government, following a report the 37-year-old was abducted while living in Cambodia.

Wanchalearm Satsaksit, who fled to Phnom Penh after the 2014 military coup in Thailand, was snatched off the streets on June 4 by armed men, according to Human Rights Watch. Thai authorities issued an arrest warrant for him in 2018 for online commentary that allegedly breached the Computer Crimes Act.

Small groups of people have rallied in Bangkok since Friday to urge an investigation, despite a state of emergency that bans gatherings to counter the coronavirus. Hashtags about the disappearance also trended on Twitter in Thailand. The online and offline protests are in part a sign of pockets of simmering opposition to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha’s government.

Prayuth, a former army chief, led the 2014 coup and returned as premier after a disputed election last year. He said Tuesday that Thailand’s foreign ministry will liaise with Cambodia on the matter. Phay Siphan, a Cambodian government spokesman, didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment.

The online remarks over the disappearance appeared under the hashtags #SaveWanchalearm and #Abolish112. In Thai legislation, Article 112 is the lese-majeste law that allows for as long as 15 years in prison for defaming or insulting the king, queen, heir apparent or regent.

Such public references to matters or laws related to the monarchy -- which sits at the apex of power in Thailand -- are rare but growing in the Southeast Asian nation, where the long jail sentences stifle open political debate and prompt many activists accused of lese majeste to flee overseas.

Wanchalearm faced arrest for computer crimes but not under the lese-majeste provisions, according to Kritsana Pattanacharoen, a police spokesman.

The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance has recorded at least 82 cases in Thailand since 1980, but the actual number is higher and included some accused of lese-majeste violations, according to Human Rights Watch.

The rights group has said the bodies of two Thai political activists who disappeared from Laos in 2018 were subsequently found in the Mekong River, “disemboweled and stuffed with concrete.”

Regional MPs are calling on the Cambodian and Thai authorities to investigate Wanchalearm’s case and ensure his safety, Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Asean governments that allow these types of actions to take place on their territory are effectively turning our region into an autocrats’ heaven, where the persecution of dissent knows no borders,” Malaysian lawmaker Charles Santiago, the chairperson of the body, said in the statement.

Before large gatherings were banned under the state of emergency imposed in late March, Prayuth and his backers in the royalist establishment faced escalating protests from critics who dispute the fairness of last year’s election. The emergency is due to end June 30, and opposition parties have warned that demonstrations may flare again.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.