BANGKOK — Thai authorities threatened to arrest Amnesty International speakers who were set to hold a news conference Wednesday to release a report detailing allegations of torture at the hands of the military and police, causing the rights group to cancel the event. Just before the news conference was to begin, officials from Thailand’s Ministry of Labor warned Amnesty that the two speakers set to talk about the report did not possess work permits and therefore risked arrest if either one spoke on stage. Even if we are criticized, the law is the law.”Without mentioning the Amnesty report directly, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said that “only a few people” are violating the law. “They try to get themselves prosecuted so they can tell it to the world.”In its report, Amnesty International documented 74 cases of torture and other ill-treatment by military and police officials since the junta’s takeover of the country in a May 2014 coup. “Please shoot me and send my corpse to my family,” said a man who was arrested by the army and held at an undisclosed location for seven days, according to the Amnesty report.

Source: National Post September 28, 2016 09:56 UTC