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Two student leaders say they have been cited for violating an emergency decree by joining the protest on October 15.
Two Thai high school student leaders will be charged with joining a banned protest last month, police said, a day after embattled Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha threatened to crack down on protesters.
Police spokesman Yingyos Thepjumnong said on Friday that the two were summoned to acknowledge the charge and would be questioned in the presence of their parents and lawyer.
The students said they had been summoned for violating an emergency decree by joining a protest on October 15, when tens of thousands of people defied a Prayuth ban aimed at stopping protests demanding their removal and reforms of the monarchy.
“Even if you arrest the protest leaders, there is not enough room in the prison because hundreds more will rise,” one of the students, Benjamaporn Nivas, 15, told the Reuters news agency.
The “Bad Student” group is planning a protest on Saturday and Benjamaporn said he would still attend. The other member of the group facing charges is 17-year-old Lopanapat Wangpaisit.
A woman reacts as she walks past the damaged signage of the Bangkok police headquarters [Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters]
The youth and student-led protests since July have become the biggest challenge to Thailand’s establishment in years and dozens of arrests and attempts to suppress them so far have only brought more people to the streets.
Prayuth has rejected the protesters’ demand to resign and rejected their accusation that he engineered last year’s election to maintain the power he took in a 2014 coup.
The protesters are also seeking to rewrite the constitution written by former military rulers and are demanding restrictions on King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s powers, saying the monarchy has allowed decades of military domination.
The Royal Palace has not commented since the protests began.
On Thursday, Prayuth threatened to use all the laws to prosecute protesters who break them, raising concerns among activists that this could also mean harsh actual insult laws under which there have been no prosecutions for more than two years.
Although the demonstrations have been largely peaceful, the police used tear gas and water cannons against the protesters this week. At least 55 were injured by tear gas and six by gunshot wounds.
Another major protest is planned at the Crown Property Office on Wednesday. The protesters say they seek to regain the fortune of the palace, which the king has taken under his personal control.
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