Six of the seven student activists who remained in detention for distributing leaflets about the charter referendum were freed from prison on Wednesday morning on a court order.
They were released about 8.40am from Bangkok Remand Prison and met by a group of fellow students and reporters covering the story.
Seven detained activists were due to be freed this morning -- Yuthana Dasri, Teerayut Nakhananram, Anan Loket, Somsakul Thongsuksai, Korakoch Saengyenphan, Nanthapong Panmas and Rangsiman Rome.
Only six of them emerged from the prison gate.
Mr Korakoch was kept in detention by Thonburi Railway Police for further legal action in a case in which he was detained, along with other suspects, while travelling by train to Rajabhakti Park in Prachuap Khiri Khan's Hua Hin district and charged with violation of a National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) order against public assembly.
The seven were among a group of 13 activists, including students of the New Democracy Movement and labourers, arrested on June 23 for distributing leaflets on the charter referendum in Samut Prakan. They were charged with violating the NCPO’s ban on political gatherings of more than five people, and with sedition.
Six of them sought bail which was granted while seven, all students, in a show of civil disobedience against their arrest, did not request bail.
Police on Tuesday sought approval from the Military Court for the continued detention of all 13 suspects, including those who had already been already granted bail, for a further 12 days.
The Military Court rejected the request, saying that as the Military Court had already said the investigators had completed their probe, there was no need to detain them.
However, prosecutors will continue with their case.
Mr Rangsiman, one of the six students released on Wednesday, said he and the other five would go to Thonburi Railway Police station to visit Mr Korakoch and give him moral support.
He said he would continue to express his opinions on the draft charter and campaign against it because doing so was not illegal.
The student thanked prison officials for taking good care of his group while they were detained.
