By Thai Newsroom Reporters
A GROUP OF POLITICAL activists has today (Jan.22) begun to literally demonstrate a 112-hour standing in support of a persistent call for release of 21 political detainees, including a few earlier arrested on lese majeste charges and currently conducting a severe hunger strike.
Members of the so-called Thalufa activist group peacefully stood in a row on a sidewalk outside the Bangkok Art & Culture Centre at Pathumwan intersection in protest of the sustained detainment of the 21 political detainees, nine of whom have been faced with the draconian lese majeste charges, better known as Section 112 of the Criminal Code, and others on sedition charges.
Thalufa members proclaimed to have peacefully stood there for 12 hours today and to continue to make it a total of 112 hours in the following days.
That period of time for the activists to literally stand against the detainment of those political detainees was intended to correspond with the numeral 112 of the lese majeste law.
Placards either held by the standing protesters or dangling nearby read “Free Political Prisoners” and “Stop Violation of Human Rights”, among others.
The latest streetside protest was reportedly designed to add weight to the ongoing calls for the unconditional and immediate release of the 21 political detainees, especially including a couple of young woman activists, namely Tantawan Tuatulanond and Orawan Pupong, currently held at the Central Women Correctional Institution.
Both Tantawan and Orawan who have not only denied meals but drinking water provided at the prison have resolutely insisted that all the political detainees be freed, the country’s judicial systems be amended and the lese majeste law be abolished.
However, doctors are yet to determine how soon their fatigue and physical conditions will become critical due to the drastic hunger strike to the extent that they immediately need hospitalisation.
The young woman activists managed to revoke the bail earlier provided for them to be returned to jail and dramatise the sustained call for freedom for all the political detainees, some of whom have been put behind bars for longer than 200 days so far.
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The 112-hour standing protest outside the Bangkok Art & Culture Centre. Photos: Matichon
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