Future Forward Party secretary-general Piyabutr Saengkanokkul says he has been summoned to hear charges of computer crime and contempt of court involving a video clip of him reading the party's statement on the court's decision to dissolve Thai Raksa Chart party in early March.
Mr Piyabutr wrote on Facebook the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) by Col Burin Thongprapai filed a complaint against him for contempt of court and importing into a computer system information that may undermine national security or create frighten the public the computer crime law.
A copy of the summons shown with the post showed it was issued on April 5 and Mr Piyabutr was to meet police on Tuesday.
"Since I have been abroad to visit my wife since April 4, I couldn't meet the police and I asked my lawyer to put it off to April 17."
He insisted he would meet computer crime police on that day. "I'm convinced the party's statement did not break any law," he wrote.
Earlier on April 3, Mr Piyabutr wrote he had been served a summons to appear as a witness and was to meet the police on the same day in a case where the FFP webmaster was accused of breaking the computer crime law for posting the clip.
Since he could not see the police on that day he asked to delay the meeting, "but the witness summons has now turned into a suspect summons," he wrote.
The NCPO on March 9 filed the complaint with computer crime police against FFP's webmaster for uploading the video clip.
The clip shows Mr Piyabutr reading a statement on the disbandment of the Thai Raksa Chart Party which took place on March 7.
Thai Raksa Chart is the third political party affiliated with fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra to be dissolved by the Constitutional Court since May 2008.
The statement read by Mr Piyabutr said that a political party, which allows people with the same ideology to acquire state power through policies chosen by voters, is an important element under democratic rule.
However, it said, efforts have been made over the past 13 years to use laws as a political tool, which causes people to raise questions about the use of power by independent bodies and the Constitutional Court, leading to an impasse where no resolution is acceptable for both sides.
"Disbanding a party 17 days ahead of the election will affect the poll," the statement continued. "It eliminates the chance of a party to compete and destroys the intention of people who will vote for it. It also undermines people's confidence that the election will be free and fair.
"The use of judicial review for more than a decade did not ease conflicts. Instead, it opens to question the checks and balances, leading to deep polarisation.
"Future Forward believes it is important to amend the constitution to rebalance relations between all institutions and urges people to vote on March 24 to resist power succession by the NCPO," said Mr Piyabutr. "They should prove they are invincible even with all the mechanisms embedded in the charter and the laws."
A number of people have also filed complaints against Mr Piyabutr for attempting to topple the democratic rule with the king as the head of state based on his academic work and books while being a lecturer at Thammasat University.
