Police in Thailand say DNA tests show that two bodies found washed up on the shore of the Mekong River in the country’s northeast are the corpses of anti-government activists.
The two, known by the pseudonyms Puchana and Kasalong, were among three exiled activists who disappeared in December from Laos, where they took shelter after fleeing Thailand. There is a group of Thai exiles in Laos associated with the anti-military Red Shirt movement that staged aggressive street protests in Bangkok in 2010 that were violently crushed by the military.
Several members of a hard-core faction are wanted in Thailand on charges of lese majeste, insulting the monarchy, a serious crime.
The Nakhon Phanom provincial police chief said Tuesday that forensics lab results matched the bodies’ DNA to family members’ samples.