Fourteen Thai students were taken into custody Saturday after taking part in an anti-coup protest rally.
The arrested pro democracy campaigners face up to seven years in prison on charges of sedition, Agence France Presse reported. The student activists from the Neo-Democracy Movement held anti-junta protests for three days in Bangkok this week, calling for the end of military rule and return of democracy.
"We've caught them all, according to the arrest warrants, and the next step is to tell them what they are accused of," a local police officer told Reuters. They are now held in the the Bangkok Remand Prison and the Central Women Correctional Institution while awaiting trial in a military court.
A fellow activist Piyarat Chongthep said he was "disheartened" by the arrests but would continue to protest against military rule.
"Actually, this is not beyond our expectation, especially mine. You can't [carry out] a kamikaze [attack] and expect that people will come out because the conflict in Thai society is not one between the people and the ruler. You are not representing the Thai people across the country. This is a conflict between one group of people and another," Chongthep said, according to The Nation Multimedia.
Human rights groups slammed Thailand's ruling military junta and called for immediate release of anti-coup student protestors.
"Thailand's junta should immediately stop arresting and prosecuting student activists. While insisting they aren't dictators, the Thai generals have used the military courts as a central feature of their crackdown against peaceful criticism and political dissent," said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch.
"With each new arrest, Thailand's path toward democracy is getting harder to find. Governments around the world should press the junta to end repression and respect fundamental rights," Adams said in a statement on Saturday.
Thailand's ruling junta, known as the National Council for Peace and Order, removed the country's first female Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in a bloodless coup last year.
