A court in Nakhon Si Thammarat has officially declared activist Surachai Danwattananusorn, who went into exile in Laos and has not been heard from since 2018, as missing.
The ruling handed down on Monday will finally give Surachai’s wife, Pranee Danwattananusorn, the ability to manage his assets and get family affairs in order, said Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR).
Ms Pranee, who has been pressing authorities for years for information about her husband and other activists, filed the petition to declare him missing on Dec 23 last year, said TLHR.
Surachai, also known as Surachai Sae Dan, would be 80 years old if he is still alive, though his wife fears that he is not.
The outspoken activist from Nakhon Si Thammarat fled to Laos with two associates after the May 2014 military coup. From there, he made online radio broadcasts critical of the monarchy and the military regime headed by Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha.
His two colleagues were found dead in December 2018.
Police said the bodies of the two men had been disembowelled and attached to a concrete block before they were stuffed into hemp bags and dumped into the river.
One body was found in the Mekong River in That Phanom district of Nakhon Phanom province on Dec 27, 2018 while the other was found in Muang district two days later.
Friends and family of Surachai lost contact with him around the same time and they fear he too might have been abducted and killed by vigilantes.
Efforts by the families and friends of the men to have Thai authorities investigate the disappearances and deaths have met with no success.
Surachai was convicted in 2010 of lese-majeste and imprisoned in Bangkok before being released under a royal pardon in October 2013.
On his release he continued to be an outspoken critic of the establishment but when the coup took place in 2014 he decided to flee to Laos.
Surachai Danwattananusorn is brought to a court hearing in Bangkok in May 2012, while serving a sentence for lese-majeste. He was released on a royal pardon in October 2013. (Bangkok Post File Photo)