Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha played down, on Thursday, student protestors’ claims that his government was harassing them.
“Anyone can post anything online,” the former coup-leader said referring to the student protest leaders social media posts that state security officials were harassing them and preparing to arrests them.
Student activists, Panusaya (Roong) Sithijirawattanakul and Parit (Penguin) Chiwarak posted early Thursday morning that they were about to be arrested by government authorities at 5 a.m. but no arrests have been made.
“They said they are being followed by officials but have any arrest been made yet?” Prayut said.
Prayut also said that if the protesters broke the law then the government must prosecute accordingly but pointed out that many people are against the government enforcing laws on students.
“They should not be using this opportunity to disrupt peace within the society,” he said.
Prayut also played up a right wing media talking points that there were third party funders for the student movement including overseas anti-monarchist groups.
“We have to see if anyone is behind this student movement,” the premier said. “They can protest because it is within their constitutional right but they should not be breaking any law by doing so.”
Despite receiving instructions from the palace not to use the les majesty law to arrest dissidents, the government has used other means to intimidate student protesters including security laws enacted to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
Other laws have also been used against protest leaders like the charges filed against prominent human rights lawyer Anon Numpa and Nutchanon “Mike” Payakaphan who the government said was guilty of inciting seditious acts.
