Three prominent Thai rights defenders were charged Tuesday with criminal defamation over a rare report describing torture suffered by detainees in the restive south, police said. Their report, based on interviews with 54 former detainees, described a host of physical and mental torture tactics allegedly used by soldiers and police. But the near-daily shootings and bombs make few international headlines, and watchdog groups say rights abuses are frequent in the shadowy region governed for a decade by emergency laws. Rights groups say both broadly-worded laws are routinely used by powerful interests to silence critics. The military, which denied the report's allegations, has in the past admitted rights abuses but prosecutions of soldiers are extremely rare.

Source: Bangkok Post July 26, 2016 12:11 UTC