The party’s acting leader, Pol Lt-General Viroj Pao-in, wrote a letter to Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, chief of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR).

“I am writing to you to draw your attention to the growing crisis in Thailand, which stems from the continuing violation of human rights and undermining of the rule of law,” Viroj wrote in the letter.

Watana, a former commerce minister, was detained on Wednesday for “attitude adjustment”.

Pheu Thai representatives Visaradee Techatheerawat and Chayika Wongnapachan yesterday submitted the letter to UNOHCHR officials in Bangkok. They discussed the party’s concerns over freedom of expression in the country, especially since Pheu Thai members have been silenced by the junta several times.

Chayika said the meeting was not only on behalf of Pheu Thai politicians, adding that she as an individual was also calling for an improvement of the human-rights situation. She questioned how people could protect their freedom of expression at such a crucial time when a referendum on the constitution was approaching.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, chief of the military’s ruling National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), remained unshaken by Pheu Thai’s contacting the UN. Prayut said he could explain the situation to the organisation and had always reported how some people were behaving to the international community. He would not be the only one affected by such a move, he said.

‘A matter of principle’

Separately, after being released on Bt100,000 bail and prohibited from leaving the Kingdom, Watana vowed to continue fighting for democratic principles, despite his recent “attitude adjustment” session and the prospect of further detention threatened by Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan.

Watana has been charged with posting false information criticising Prawit on Facebook in violation of the Computer Crime Act, which is punishable by five years in prison.

“I will continue to do my job. Anyone whose paycheques come from the Thai taxpayers should be able to be criticised, with no exceptions. Most important, I did not ask you to stage the coup. So there are no excuses,” he said yesterday.

He refused to speak further about the allegation, saying he would leave it to the judicial process. Before being charged with a crime, Watana was detained by the military on Wednesday because of the Facebook post.

He said he had been confined for several hours in a 5-by-8-metre room and talked to two different groups of military men. One group told him he had violated the Computer Crime Act, while the other tried to “adjust his attitude”.

Watana said the military officers had been polite and concerned for his well-being, offering him food, but he stressed that he was opposed to detention without notice and to attitude adjustment.

“If my remark was unlawful, I will be responsible for any charges pressed against me. But you cannot just have military men abduct me like that,” he said. “This means Thais have no liberty guarantee. If you are OK [with that], then OK. But this is not my fight, it’s the principle of rights and freedom. [The military] cannot just do whatever they want.”

Watana did not express concern about being detained again for attitude adjustment, saying he was just doing his job as a politician.

“It was nothing personal. I was only calling for democracy and rights and liberty. I do not think I have done anything wrong,” the Pheu Thai figure said, adding that he was too old to change his attitude.

Watana dismissed Prayut‘s remark that he was deepening the political conflict, saying that his comments were based on a principle and were not personal. He added that he only wanted the country to move forward.

A representative of iLaw, an organisation that monitors freedom of expression, said: “Summoning those critical of the junta government is an intimidation in itself. But deploying force to detain Watana was even more obvious [because] it was intimidating and it was rather unproportional and showed how the [junta] did not have concern for the people.”

He added that Prawit should have used legal means against Watana, not forcefully detain him.