A group of 14 Thai students, detained for staging a peaceful anti-coup rally in defiance of the ruling junta's ban, will be released but stand trial over sedition charges.
The Thai military court, which ordered their release today, said detention was unnecessary because the defendants did not exhibit any intention to flee. The students will, however, face prosecution.
The students, in their early 20s, were arrested on June 26 for staging a political gathering at Bangkok's Democracy Monument in defiance of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and charged with sedition, which carries up to seven years in jail, as a political assembly of five people or more was prohibited.
The court's order was expected following calls for their release from several rights advocates, both here and abroad.
Continued detention would make it difficult for the students to prepare their case to defend themselves in court, the court said.
If military prosecutors decide to arraign the students, they will stand trial in the military court.
Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday said the 14 student activists would have to be tried by a military court.
He said that it had been clearly announced after the coup the kinds of offences that would be tried by a military court, and violating NCPO was among those offences.
"The law also applies to other people" (not just this group of students), Chan-o-cha said.
Thailand's ruling junta had come under intense pressure to drop the case against the students. They are among the few activists in the country who have publicly challenged the military after it seized power last year.
The United Nations Human Rights Office and the European Union last week called on Thailand to drop the charges and free the activists from custody.
