Lawyers for Australian author, Harry Nicolaides, will lodge an application for a Royal Pardon this week after the Melbourne man was sentenced to three years' jail for insulting the Royal family.

Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Mark Dean, Senior Counsel for Harry Nicolaides

• Listen:  Windows Media

DEAN: Well, he's found the experience of imprisonment in Thailand extremely challenging and it's taken its toll on his health, both physically and psychological the conditions in which he was held in Thailand were basic to say the least, held in very overcrowded conditions, with poor sanitation and so. And so the situation for him has been extremely difficult.

LAM: Do we know what kind of prison facilities there are? For instance, is he being held in jail that's for white collar crime, rather than say drug traffickers in a rougher part of the jail?

DEAN: He's held in remand in Thailand and there are convicted prisoners and prisoners on remand of a wide range of age, ages between say 13 and 80 I'm told convicted of all sorts of crimes and charged with all sorts of crimes.

LAM: What kind of support does Harry have in the Thai jail apart from the lawyers whom presumably might see him once a day?

DEAN: Well the lawyers see him probably on a weekly basis and the Australian Government has provided consular support on a regular basis for consular staff from Bangkok, visit him on a regular basis.

LAM: Well, the court imposed a three year sentence as you said, rather than the maximum 15 years. The fact that the courts imposed the minimum, what does that tell you? Do you think that means that perhaps the court recognises that Harry Nicolaides meant no harm?

DEAN: Well, whether or not the court believes he meant no harm, the court obviously took the view that the offence itself fell at the very low end of seriousness of offences of this nature by imposing a penalty of three years which was the absolute minimum available to the court. The court was obviously of the view that the offence was not a serious one.

LAM: Are you free to talk about the offending part of that book, because many people are not clear about what exactly was so offensive in that part of the book that got Mr Nicolaides into trouble?

DEAN: Well, the book itself is a work of fiction. The narrator recounts a rumour that he has heard regarding the King and the Crown Prince. It's not put in any temporal setting, that is it's not said to be a rumour circulating now or currently. The name of the King is not identified and nor is the name of the Crown Prince identified.

The rumour does not concern the King, in terms and it does concern the Crown Prince, his personal life.

LAM: I understand that the book only sold a few copies, so presumably not many people in Thailand have read it. What do you know about Thai attitudes towards this case?

DEAN: Well, the Thai population generally have a high degree of reverence to the monarchy and I would imagine that any intended criticism of the monarchy would be taken very seriously by the Thai population.

LAM: But I understand that the book is still on the shelf of Thailand's National Library is that right?

DEAN: Yes it is, it is, that's correct and we're now focusing on resolving the case as quickly as possible from Harry's point of view to achieve his release from prison.

LAM: Is there any possibility at all that he will not serve the full three years, that he might be let off early or indeed not be sent to jail at all?

DEAN: Well, if the Royal Pardon is successful, Harry will be released from prison and deported from Thailand within 24 hours of the pardon being granted.