The army has arrested a group of suspected local hackers in connection with a series of attacks on state-owned websites in protest at the controversial Computer Crimes Act.
The move came after the Criminal Court on Friday approved arrest warrants for another four suspects who are now in police custody.
The precise number of suspects nabbed by the army has yet to be confirmed. They were detained at a military base for questioning.
Pol Maj Gen Supaset Chokchai, commander of the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD), said he had yet to be informed of the report.
Some of the hackers appear to have been tipped off that the authorities were coming for them.
On the Facebook page of Civilians Against the Single Gateway which launched a campaign to attack the government's websites, one administrator left a post yesterday saying: "I am now safe, went much farther away from the hands of uncle Tu [nickname of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha]."
"On Thursday, a phu yai [senior figure] gave me a signal to hurriedly flee so I had to fly late last night. Now I am in a safe house, don't worry about me," he said.
Previously, the army detained another nine suspects, including Natdanai Khongdee, 19, who was earlier handed over to the TCSD for prosecution.
The army yesterday handed over three more suspects of that first group to the TCSD.
Deputy police spokesman Pol Col Krisana Pattanacharoen said the court has approved warrants for the four on charges of criminal association under Section 209 of the Criminal Code, which carries a potential jail term of up to 10 years; and a charge of violating the Computer Crime Act for adding false information to computer systems and illegally accessing computer information, for which they could face maximum jail terms of five years.
Their arrests came after the Civilians Against the Single Gateway group urged its supporters to launch a wave of cyber attacks on government sites.
