By Reporters Without Borders |
<p>Reporters Without Borders again urges the Thai authorities to release Somyos Prueksakasemsuk, the former editor of the banned magazine Voice of Thaksin, who was tried on lèse-majesté charges during the past four days in Bangkok, with witnesses for the prosecution and defence giving evidence. Somyos has been detained for the past 12 months.</p>
<p>On 2 May, two Thammasat lecturers testified as defence witnesses in the lèse majesté trial of Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, former editor of Voice of Taksin magazine.</p>
<p>On 1 May, Somyot Prueksakasemsuk testified to the court that ‘Jitr Pollachan’ was the penname of Jakrapop Penkair who wrote two articles which brought lèse majesté charges down on him.</p>
By Pravit Rojanaphruk |
<p>Soon after Vipar Daomanee, a former Thammasat University lecturer, criticized red-shirt leader Nattawut Sai-gua for his endorsement of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s decision to pay respect to Privy Council President Gen. Prem Tinsulanond, Vipar received a short note from an audience at a symposium she spoke on lese majeste law and prisoner of conscience Somyos Prueksakasemsuk.</p>
By Lisa Gardner, Asian Correspondent |
<p>As reported widely and so too here at Siam Voices:</p>
<p>Earlier today, with the eyes of international media upon it, Thailand’s judiciary would delay the delivery of a final verdict in the ongoing case of Prachatai executive director Chiranuch Premchaiporn.</p>
<p>On 30 April, the Criminal Court in Bangkok postponed its verdict in the case of Prachatai Director Chiranuch Premchaiporn to 30 May, citing that the case had a lot of documents. </p>
<p>On 24 April, prior to the start of hearings on Somyot Prueksakasemsuk’s lèse majesté case, the defence lawyers asked the Criminal Court to send their petition to the Constitutional Court to consider the constitutionality of Section 112 of the Criminal Code.</p>
By Pravit Rojanaphruk |
<p>Many ultra-royalists whom I engaged with over the course of many months of twitter exchanges and debates tend to think that something must be wrong with Thais who are against the lese majeste law.</p>
By Human Rights Watch |
<p><em>Free Speech of Online Media on Trial</em></p>
<p>(New York, April 24, 2012) – The trial of an internet service provider on lese majeste charges puts Thailand’s web moderators at risk of long prison terms, Human Rights Watch said today. On April 30, 2012, the Bangkok Criminal Court will issue a verdict on charges of lese majeste – insulting the monarchy – against Chiranuch Premchaiporn, the web-board manager of the online news portal Prachatai.</p>
<p>The legal defence team for Somyot Prueksakasemsuk will on 24 April ask the Constitution Court to consider whether the penalty under Section 112 of the Criminal Code, or the lèse majesté law, is too severe, and whether the association of the law with national security is against the constitution, Somyot’s wife Sukanya told Prachatai on 22 April. </p>
<p>On 20 April, four prosecution witnesses testified in the ongoing trial of Somyot’s case at the Criminal Court in Bangkok. </p>
By Pravit Rojanaphruk, The Nation |
<p>A prosecution witness in the lese majeste trial of Voice of Taksin magazine editor and key red shirt Somyos Prueksakasemsuk testified yesterday that two articles in the magazine allegedly defamatory to the monarchy could be construed as such if the reader is a royalist who - like himself - has "faith" in the monarchy.</p>
<p>On 18 April, lèse majesté case of Somyot Prueksakasemsuk continued at the Criminal Court in Bangkok with the testimonies of prosecution witnesses including military officers and university students. </p>