On June 4 last year, political activist Wanchalearm Satsaksit who lived in exile in Cambodia simply vanished.
The 38 year old, who was affiliated with the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, aka the red shirts, was last seen near his apartment in Phnom Penh. Local media VOA Khmer reported that CCTV footage showed a black SUV speeding away from Mr Wanchalearm's apartment.
A year later, his case remains unsolved. An investigation by the Cambodian authorities has offered no explanation, while Thailand simply says that because the case occurred on Cambodia soil, it is beyond its jurisdiction.
On Wednesday, Mr Wanchalearm's distraught sister Sitanan went to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), asking the agency to accept her brother's case. The agency, under the Ministry of Justice, is known for taking up high-profile enforced disappearance cases such as those of Muslim lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit and Karen activist Porlajee "Billie" Rakchongcharoen. However, the DSI has yet to decide whether to accept Mr Wanchalearm's case.
Mr Wanchalearm fled to Cambodia in 2014 after failing to respond to a summons issued to political dissidents. In Cambodia, he ran a Facebook page posting satirical content criticising the Thai government.
His mysterious abduction has bred speculation that he might be another victim of enforced disappearance, a fate that has not been unusual for dissidents in Thailand. According to the United Nations, there have been 80 cases of suspected enforced disappearance in Thailand over the past 15 years. These suspected victims have comprised political activists, conservationists, protesting villagers and even criminal suspects. They had one thing in common: they were all critics.
The nature of enforced disappearances is blatant in its disregard for the law. For instance, Mr Somchai was last seen on a Ramkhamhaeng roadside where eyewitnesses saw four men dragging him from his car, while Porlajee was last seen on state property after being released from a detention facility at Kaeng Krachan National Park.
Mr Somchai is still considered to be a missing person, while Porlajee is presumed dead.
In the case of Mr Wanchalearm, the evidence was the CCTV footage and information from his family and friends. Thai authorities could have done more than wait for the investigation results by their Cambodian counterparts.
After all, Mr Wanchalearm is a Thai national. Despite his political stance and legal charges against him, he deserves state protection and assistance, and so does his family.
Enforced disappearance cases have a chilling effect on the families of the victims. They also breed a climate of fear that prevents people from speaking out.
The best way to deal with such a heinous crime is to have better laws. Under Thai criminal law, evidence such as records about an abduction, or even dead bodies, is required for families before they can pursue justice.
That means we have to abandon hope.
Five years ago, lawmakers drafted a bill on the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance. The bill should have been passed in 2019 yet it was removed from parliamentary deliberation at the last minute.
Now the bill is back in the law-making pipeline again. The cabinet has approved it in principle, and now it awaits deliberation in parliament. Legislators with vision and political will need to pass this bill into law.