Update: The BBC Thai reported that the military have abducted five persons, including Harit Mahaton and Nithi Kooltasnasilp in total on Wednesday morning. The name of another detainee among the five is Supachai Saibutr, 30. According to Supachai’s father, soldiers arrested him from his house at 5:30 am in Bangkok, citing national security. The father added that Supachai was taken to the 11th Military Circle in Bangkok. The names of two other detainees are currently unknown.   

Soldiers have abducted a former journalist and his friend from a restaurant in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen, according to a human rights lawyer.

 

On Wednesday, 27 April 20116, Anon Nampa, a volunteer lawyer for Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), posted on his Facebook page that Harit Mahaton, the owner of a ramen restaurant in Khon Kaen Province, and Nithi Kooltasnasilp, the restaurant manager, were abducted by four soldiers from the restaurant.

 

 

Later, Facebook user Theerapat Charoensuk, apparently a friend of Harit, apparently a friend of Harit, posted that four soldiers visited Harit’s restaurant at 6.00 am on Wednesday and took the two away, telling a restaurant worker that it was on orders from the junta. The soldiers also searched the restaurant and confiscated personal belongings of the two.