Two former hunger strikers and seven other activists were arrested on Wednesday night after they allegedly went on a rampage through the Samran Rat police station, breaking a window, pouring paint on the station’s staircases and spray-painting two vehicles and the station’s walls.
One police officer suffered a head injury, allegedly when he was hit by one of the protesters.
The group, including Tantawan Tuatulanon and Orawan Phuphong, went to the police station at about 7pm to seek justice for a 15-year old protester, currently being held at a remand home in Nakhon Pathom province on a lèse majesté charge, after police filed an additional charge of breaching the Archaeological Sites Act.
The nine protesters were later separately taken to Lat Krabang, Chalong Krung and Thung Song Hong police stations for detention pending investigations. All were charged with trespass, causing damage to state property, assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.
Police said they will seek a court order to have them further detained, pending the outcome of the investigation.
A police officer dismissed an allegation by one of the protesters, who claimed that police ordered her to remove her clothes in order to be photographed, saying that they were being held by female police officers.
Tantawan and Orawan staged a hunger strike in front of the Supreme Court in late February, demanding the release on bail of “Talugas” protesters detained on lèse majesté and munitions possession charges. They were eventually admitted to Thammasat University Hospital after their conditions deteriorated.
