The junta has reminded supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra about the requirements for travelling outside Thailand as the birthday of the deposed former prime minister draws near.
Red shirts celebrated Thaksin Shinawatra's birthday with a durian cake last year. (Photo by Boonnam Kerdkeaw)
People banned by the courts or the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) from leaving Thailand must seek permission to travel from the coup leader, according to Paiboon Kumchaya, the assistant army chief and head of the council's legal and judicial affairs unit.
"The approval authority rests with only one person - NCPO chairman Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha," Gen Paiboon said on Saturday.
Thaksin is said to be planning to celebrate his 65th birthday in Paris on July 26.
When the Pheu Thai government was in power, Thaksin's birthday was a major occasion on which hundreds of supporters went abroad to meet him, usually in Hong Kong. While there, they used the occasion to lobby him for political favours that only he was capable of bestowing in many cases.
Thaksin reportedly said he would not host the event to celebrate his birthday as it would be hosted by well-wishers.
Gen Paiboon said some people had requested permission to go to Europe. They did not specifically say they would join the birthday of Thaksin but the council was already suspicious on their intention, he added.
Their travel plans will depend on the army chief and "I cannot read his mind", Gen Paiboon added.
Several politicians and figures ordered to report to the military regime after the coup have been ordered to stay inside the country and require permission for any trips outside the kingdom.
Supporters of Thaksin have already cancelled a ceremony at Wat Kaew Fah in Nonthaburi this year. In past years the merit-making event at the temple has drawn big crowds of his red-shirt followers and political supporters.
Thaksin himself is reported to have said that the temple event should be called off because he does not want to upset the junta, which overthrew the government of his sister Yingluck on May 22.
The NCPO has put the brakes on all political gatherings after a fund-raising dinner held by Suthep Thaugsuban on June 21. The man who led the protests against Ms Yingluck claimed at the meeting that he had been in contact with the army chief since 2010 about ways to end the influence of Thaksin, who was deposed in 2006 in another coup.
The claim infuriated the army chief, who denied that any such conversations with the former Democrat Party heavyweight ever took place.
Mr Suthep had been planning to hold weekly fundraising dinners for a new foundation to help victims of political violence. However, after Gen Prayuth made it clear he would not tolerate any more "political" talk of any kind, he cancelled them.