“He can’t actually walk upstairs by himself now. He has to be escorted,” Thai Lawyers for Human Rights co-founder Sirikan Charoensiri toldThe Sydney Morning Herald andThe Age on Thursday before the latest failed attempt by his legal team and family to obtain bail at the Bangkok Criminal Court.
“This morning my team,who just came out from seeing him,said he felt very weak and he started to faint several times.”
Parit,22,announced on March 15 that he would be refusing food until he was granted bail,telling the court he did not intend to take his own life but hoped “the torment that happens to me is a testimony to the injustice that has occurred,a spark that pricks your conscience and serves as proof that the truth is not afraid of any suffering whatsoever”.
He has since been put on a saline drip and arrived to court last month in a wheelchair as his health began to decline.
Sirikan is representing fellow student protest leader Panusaya “Rung” Sithijirawattanakul,who has also embarked on a hunger strike in prison after being charged with insulting Thailand’s billionaire King Maha Vajiralongkorn while calling for change to the constitution and the monarchy and for the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. Prayut came to power via a military coup in 2014.
During demonstrations last year,Parit and other protest leaders worecrop tops,a garment the king has been photographed wearing in Germany.