Thai army to drop charges against 3 human rights workers for defamation
Bangkok: Thailand's army said on Tuesday it would drop a defamation case against three human rights workers who alleged that troops tortured insurgents, a rare climbdown by a military notorious for taking critics to court.
The charges against Pornpen Khongkachonkiet -- the chair of Amnesty International Thailand -- Anchana Heemmina and Somchai Homlaor were widely seen as seen as an attack on the reporting of alleged army abuses.
The 2016 report, based on interviews with 54 former detainees, described alleged torture tactics used by soldiers and police across the Muslim-majority south, which has been blistered by a 13-year conflict.
More than 6,800 people -- mostly civilians -- have been killed in the insurgency by Malay Muslim locals against the Thai state, which governs the region with strict emergency laws.
The trio faced up to seven years in jail for defamation and a separate charge filed for publishing the report online.
But on Tuesday the army's southern command spokesman unexpectedly said the charges would be dropped.
"We didn't want the three human activists punished," Colonel Pramote Prom-in told reporters after meeting the trio in Bangkok, adding the charges would shortly be withdrawn.
He repeated the army's denial of any torture and said the military has its own "measures to punish" abuses.
Pornpen said she and the other activists stood by their report and welcomed the army's pledge to "re-establish the relationship" with rights workers in the south through a committee to report abuse.
The case was closely watched inside a kingdom where the room for rights campaigners has been severely cramped since a 2014 coup.
The UN's rights office in Southeast Asia applauded the move and urged Thai authorities to drop similar charges against other human rights defenders.
"Today's developments are very positive, and we encourage the Government of Thailand to take additional steps to strengthen measures to protect activists carrying out human rights reporting and monitoring," said Laurent Meillan, the UN Human Rights Office's acting regional representative.
