Two fasting student activists have asked Thailand’s Supreme Court to allow them, their families and some supporters to use the court compound and some of its facilities to continue their hunger strike.
The request by Tantawan Tuatulanon and Orawan Phuphong, is contained in a petition letter, addressed to the president of the Supreme Court, which was handed over to court officials by Netiporn Sanesangkhom, formerly also a political hunger striker.
In the letter, the two hunger strikers said that they have continued their fast on the pavement in front of the Supreme Court since last Friday, after they left Thammasat University Hospital.
They said their presence in front of the court, near the entrance, may cause inconvenience to those entering and exiting the court, adding that some unidentified people have tried to disrupt their fasting at night.
The two young pro-democracy protesters have asked to be provided with some lighting, security, a toilet facility and some emergency medical equipment, such as a defibrillator.
10 police officers from Chana Songkhram police station are deployed in front of the court to ensure peace and order.
Krisadang Nutcharat, a lawyer attached to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, explained that the two hunger strikers chose to use an area in front of the statue of Prince Ratchaburi Direkrit, regarded as the father of Thai legal reform, as a temporary shelter because the statue is a symbol of the struggle of students to free the judicial system from military dictatorship in 1972.
