On 9 Feb, an investigator from the Technological Crimes Suppression Division (TCSD) testified in court as a prosecution witness in the case of Thanthawut Thaweewarodomkul, the alleged NorPorChorUSA administrator.

Pol Lt Col Ratchaphol Thira-amornbun told the court that, according to information received by investigators, the server of the website was located in the state of Utah in the USA.  The investigators did not check the IP addresses from which the allegedly offensive comments had been posted on 1 and 13 March 2010.

According to a police check on the defendant’s internet usage on 30 and 31 March 2010, Thanthawut accessed several websites through various means including HTTP and FTP.   And on the day of the arrest, the defendant tried to log in to the website with his password, as instructed by the witness and in the presence of other authorities, but failed.

Thanthawut’s 10 year-old son was also taken to the police station on the day of the arrest.  The defendant was interrogated by the police from 7 to 10 pm on 1 Apr and from 9 am on the next day.  The police told the defendant to contact someone to take his son, but he could not find anyone.  So he and his son spent the night of 1 Apr at the police station, the witness said.

During the investigation, several aliases were found to have possible connections to the website.  According to a flow chart the TCSD received from the security authorities, all these people lived in other countries.  The defendant told the investigators that the website had been administered by another person, and his job was to make its pages look more attractive, and he received a login name and a password from that person, the witness said.

Thanthawut’s son Web also attended the trial in court.  Thanthawut, in tears, reportedly had the opportunity to hug his son before the trial, after over 10 months in detention.