Lawyers for Lawyers has grave concerns about the prosecution of Thai human rights lawyer Sirikan Charoensiri. The charges against her appear to relate to the circumstances surrounding Ms. Charoensiri’s provision of legal aid to 14 student activists, who were arrested on 26 June 2015 after carrying out peaceful protests calling for democracy and an end to military rule.
Sirikan Charoensiri is a lawyer working for Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR). From the moment she took up the case against the students, she has continually been subject to intimidation by the Thai authorities. More recently, she was again charged with two more offences.
On February 2, 2016, Ms. Sirikan received a summons to appear at the Chanasongkram Police Station to be charged with two offences under the Criminal Code of Thailand: “giving false information regarding a criminal offence” and “refusing to comply with the order of an official.” Almost eight months later, on September 27, 2016, Ms. Sirikan received another summons to appear at the police station to be charged with violating a ban on political gathering of five persons or more under the Head of the NCPO Order 3/2015 and ‘sedition’ under Section 116 of Thai Criminal Code. When she reported at the police station again on 22 October, a member of L4L together with a group of international human rights organizations and country delegations accompanied Sirikan to monitor the meeting.
In nearly one year’s time, Ms. Sirikan has been charged with no fewer than four criminal offences in connection with her professional activities for taking on one human rights-related case. All four charges are currently under investigation. Sirikan will have to report herself to the Public Prosecutor on 17 January 2017 to hear the prosecution order in relation to her alleged offences on refusing to comply with the officers’ order and concealing evidence under Sections 368 and 142 of the Thai Criminal Code. If indicted in the sedition case, Ms. Sirikan will be required to appear before a military court. And if found guilty for all four above-mentioned charges, Ms. Sirikan could face up to 15 years of imprisonment.
L4L has expressed concerns about the possible prosecution of Sirikan Charoensiri by letter. We call on the Thai authorities to immediately drop all proceedings against her and make sure all lawyers of the TLHR can do their work without threat, intimidation, hindrance, harassment, improper interference or reprisals.
More information about TLHR:
Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) is a lawyers’ collective founded shortly after the late military coup on May 22, 2014 to provide legal aid and monitor the human rights situation in Thailand.
Today, TLHR consists of four full-time lawyers and ten volunteer lawyers. Additionally, TLHR has a documentation team of ten data collectors, who contribute to the crucial work of monitoring and documenting the human rights situation in Thailand under the military regime. TLHR’s lawyers provide legal representation in the most politically sensitive cases of Thailand, including civilian cases tried in military courts after the coup. These cases include acting for the increasing number of individuals facing lese majeste charges and the human rights activists facing arbitrary arrest for exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and expression, as well as journalists facing arbitrary arrest in the exercise of media freedom and the freedom of information by documenting the work of human rights activists.
