BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand will release on Tuesday eight activists detained for posting Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) comments critical of the ruling junta and a military-backed draft constitution, a lawyer for the group said.
The military seized power in May 2014, throwing out an old constitution and clamping down on dissent. It has promised an election by mid-2017.
But a draft constitution drawn up under military supervision has drawn disapproval from both sides of the political divide, and the junta has responded by banning criticism of the charter in the run-up to an August referendum on it.
The activists, detained in April, were charged with sedition and violating Thailand's computer crimes law over their posts on social media website Facebook that criticized the draft constitution and junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha.
Two of them also face charges of infringing Thailand's royal defamation law, known as Article 112.
"The court has agreed to release them on a 200,000-baht bail each," Winyat Chatmontree, a lawyer for the group, told Reuters. This figure is equivalent to $5,675.
The eight will be released from a Bangkok prison late on Tuesday, he added.
On Sunday the mother of a vocal, anti-junta activist was released after being charged with defaming the monarchy two days earlier.
Article 112 of Thailand's criminal code says anyone who "defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir-apparent or the regent" will be punished with prison terms of up to 15 years for each offense.
"I have already told you this government will not tolerate royal defamation," Prayuth told reporters at government house on Tuesday.
Critics have said the military uses royal defamation laws as a political tool to silence its enemies.
Demonstrations have been rare since the generals overthrew the government of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, but a small wave of opposition to the junta and the military-backed charter has arisen in recent weeks.
The junta has appeared increasingly jittery ahead of the Aug. 7 referendum on the constitution, which the country's two biggest political parties have both criticized as undemocratic.
Opponents say the charter would enshrine military power and would not heal political rivalry that has divided the country for more than a decade.
The military denies seeking indefinite power and says the proposed constitution would heal divisions and usher in stable, corruption-free politics.
At the heart of Thailand's decade of tumultuous politics has been rivalry between populist political forces that have won huge support in the countryside and the Bangkok-based military-dominated establishment.
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