Police officers confiscated campaign flyers against the junta-sponsored draft constitution from an academic and attempted to take her to a police station.

At around 4 pm on Monday, 25 April 2016, police officers confiscated flyers titled ‘7 Reasons Not to Accept the Draft Constitution’ from Bencharat Sae-Chua, a political scientist teaching at Mahidol University, at a forum on the double questions on the draft constitution at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok.

The flyers were published by the New Democracy Movement (NDM), a well-known pro-democracy activist group, many of whose members are currently facing charges for participating in previous anti-junta gatherings.

Bencharat, one of the panellists of the discussion, urged the authorities to allow people to criticise the draft constitution freely without the threat of being prosecuted.  

After confiscating the flyers from the lecturer, the police officers attempted to take Bencharat to Pathumwan Police Station for a discussion. However, the officers later resorted to asking for a business card from Bencharat instead after many participants at the forum witnessed the exchange between them.

Bencharat handing her business card to a police officer at the forum on the draft constitution at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, on 25 April 2016