<p>On June 26, the Office of the Attorney-General again postponed a decision on whether to prosecute Chiranuch Premchaiporn who has been charged for allowing comments offensive to the monarchy to be posted on the Prachatai webboard.</p>
<p>The prosecution has ordered the police to conduct further investigations and told Chiranuch to report again on July 29.</p>
<p>On June 25, Daranee Charncherngsilapakul’s lawyer requested the Court to seek a Constitutional Court ruling on whether the Court’s decision to hold the trial in secret is constitutional or not, and temporarily suspend the trial until the Constitutional Court gives its ruling.</p>
By Reuters |
<p>Rights group Amnesty International urged Thailand on Friday to open the trial of a political campaigner charged with insulting the monarchy after it was closed for reasons of "national security."</p>
By Darren Schuettler, Reuters |
<p>A Thai judge citing reasons of national security closed the trial on Tuesday of a "red shirt" supporter of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra charged with insulting the monarchy.</p>
<p>Daranee Charncherngsilpakul, aka ‘Da Torpedo’, who has been accused of lèse majesté and held in prison without bail since 22 July 2008, will face her first trial in court on June 23, and trials in her other two cases in which she is accused of leading protesters to surround ASTV and insulting coup leader Gen Saprang Kalayanamitr will follow.</p>
<p>Prachatai talked to her lawyer Prawase Praphanukul who agreed to take the case despite their different political stance.</p>
<p>On May 21, INN News reported that according to Pol Col Sompoch Sonkanok, superintendent at Mae Rim Police Station in Chiang Mai, local police have issued an arrest warrant for Kokaew Pikulthong, a red-shirt leader, charging him with lèse majesté offence for his speech to the red-shirt rally on March 22 at Chiang Mai’s 700<sup>th</sup> year Stadium.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Pol Col Sompoch said that police were also investigating whether what Thaksin Shinnawatra had said in his phone-in during the same rally constituted the same offence or not.</p>
<p>According to Anont Nampa, lawyer for lèse majesté convict Suwicha Thakor, the public prosecutor has asked the Court to extend the period for filing an appeal that should have ended on May 3, to June 1. In effect, the case is not finished, and Suwicha’s family cannot start the process of seeking a royal pardon.</p>
<p>‘And if the prosecutor files an appeal during this time, the case will drag on,’ said Anont.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" />
"Times New Roman";color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">‘Please help me!<span> </span>I’ve no one to turn to,’ Thitima Thakor panicked over the phone in the morning of May 12.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" />
"Times New Roman";color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">‘What’s happened?’</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" />
"Times New Roman";color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">‘Five days ago, Nui (Suwicha’s nickname) was transferred to Zone 7.<span> </span>The other inmates forced him to be tattooed.<span> </span>There are 37 people in his cell.<span> </span>Nui was scared.<span> </span>He didn’t yield.<span> </span>He told me if he was tattooed, he would kill himself,’ Thitima anxiously spoke of the latest situation for her husband, Suwicha Thakor, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for posting </span><span lang="EN-GB" />
"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:#333333;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">lèse majesté</span><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><span lang="EN-GB" />
"Times New Roman";color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">content on the internet.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" />
normal"><span lang="EN-GB" />
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">On Apr 24, Papatchanan Ching-in, leader of a group of red-shirts in Nakhon Ratchasima province, reported to police after arrest warrant had been issued for her by the provincial court on the previous day.</span></p>
<p>On April 18, Matichon reported that police arrested Thossaporn Ruethaiprasertsung, 48, at a photocopying shop in Nakhon Ratchasima, and seized several leaflets whose contents reportedly were offensive to the monarchy and the Privy Council.<br />
</p>
By CPJ |
<p>The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the ongoing legal harassment of BBC correspondent Jonathan Head. Police Lt. Col. Wattanasak Mungkandee filed a third criminal complaint this year against Head on December 23, alleging he had insulted the Thai monarchy in his reporting.</p>
By Prachatai |
<p><span>On April 18, </span><span>Pol Lt Col Wattanasak Mungkitjakarndee presented further documents to the Police Crime Suppression Division (CSD) to corroborate the lèse majesté allegations he had previously made against BBC's Asia-Pacific correspondent Jonathan Head, and said that he believed there was a conspiracy.</span></p>