The House committee on law, justice, and human rights will next Wednesday ask the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) to clarify its actions regarding the disappearance of Thai activist Wanchalearm Satsaksit, who was abducted near his apartment in Phnom Penh last week.
Suthas Ngernmuen, the Democrat party-list MP and chair of the committee, said it will call the Foreign Ministry and human rights advocates to follow up and clarify the matter amid calls by activists and the man's family for Thai authorities to investigate his disappearance.
The move came after Rangsiman Rome, the Move Forward Party MP and spokesman of the House committee forwarded the complaint of the Satsaksit family to the meeting as an urgent matter.
Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, activist and former editor of the now-defunct Voice of Taksin magazine also petitioned the House committee on Thursday.
"I am calling for investigations into the forced disappearance cases of Wanchalearm and eight others. No matter who they are, they are Thai citizens whose lives matter," he said.
Meanwhile, Wallop Nakbua, the spokesman of the Ministry of Justice, said an investigation into nine self-exiled Thai activists who had disappeared revealed they were Surachai Danwattananusorn, Chatchan Bupphawan, or Comrade Phuchana, Kraidej Luelert, or Comrade Kasalong, Ittipon Sukpaen, and Wuthipong "Ko Tee" Kochathamakun. They went missing in Laos.
Meanwhile, those who involuntarily disappeared in Vietnam are Chucheep "Loong Sanam Luang" Chiwasut, Kritsana Thapthai, and Siam Theerawut. The last case is Wanchalearm Satsaksit.
All cases involve people who violated the Computer Crime Act, lese majeste law, or undermined political stability, he said.
He said the Rights and Liberties Protection Department forwarded the bill on the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearances to the Secretariat of the Cabinet on April 23.