The Criminal Court on Thursday rejected a bail request on behalf of Patiwat S., who has been charged with lèse majesté because he starred in the Wolf Bride, a stage play about a fictional monarch.
Ratchada Criminal Court on Thursday granted a police request to detain the suspect for six more days. This is the fifth time that the court extended the custody of Patiwat and denied his request for bail, with the police claiming that they have not finished drafting the charge sheet.
Patiwat has been detained for more than 40 days since the police arrested him at Khon Kaen University campus on 14 August and has remained in custody in Bangkok Remand Prison ever since.
In court, Sasinan Thamnithinan, the suspect’s lawyer from the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, argued against the police’s custody request, saying that the interrogation process was over and that the investigation chief should decide whether to file a case or not.
The police, however, claimed that they have not finished investigating a video recording of the Wolf Bride.
Sasinan later requested to court to release the suspect on bail of 600,000 baht in cash because the suspect has a tumour on his shoulder that needs to be operated on.
The Criminal Court, however, ruled that the police could detain him for another six days.
Patiwat was accused of starring in a stage play “The Wolf Bride”, which was performed in October 2013 at Thammasat University, Bangkok, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 14 October popular uprising. The play was organized by former members of the now-defunct Prakai Fai Karn Lakorn.
Patiwat was in his fifth year at the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Khon Kaen University. He is also the Secretary General of the Student Federation of the North East.
One day after his arrest, Pornthip M., the play’s director, faced the same charges for her alleged involvement with the play.
In early June, the junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) summoned and detained about ten current and former Prakai Fai members and interrogated them about the play.
Various human rights organizations, including the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), have voiced concerns over the arrests of the two.
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