Thailand urged to drop charges against anti-junta activists

Human rights groups have called on Thai authorities to drop charges against four men being tried in a military court for expressing dissent against the country's military rulers, ABC News reported.
The four — a lawyer, a taxi driver, a university student and a man whose son was killed in 2010 anti-government protests — were arrested last month for holding a campaign to call for martial law to be revoked.
The military has issued a ban on political gatherings of five people or more. It also has ordered security-related offenses to be handled by the military courts.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that the junta should stop arresting and prosecuting peaceful critics in the military courts, which are controlled by the junta.
"Every arbitrary arrest shows Thailand descending deeper into dictatorial rule," Brad Adams, the group's Asia director, said in a statement.
Amnesty International issued a similar statement Monday.
"It is dismaying that the military authorities are apparently backtracking on pledges that abusive martial law powers would be temporary only — there is no sign that the crackdown on rights is ending," said Rupert Abbott, Amnesty's research director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.