5 replies to this topic

[LarryCA]

I don't recall seeing this case reported in any of the Bangkok English newspapers. I came across it accidentally in googling another matter through an internet blog:

"A middle-aged woman, Ms. Boonyuen Prasertying, was the breadwinner for her family and earned her living from a recycling business in a suburb of Bangkok. Some said she was also a fortune teller. Without the knowledge of other family members, she was involved in demonstrations at Sanam Luang to protest against the coup. A mundane person with low education, she declared a fervent support for democracy. A few people knew her background, but they felt awed by her blunt rally speeches.

Boonyuen turned herself in instantly to the police on 15 August 2008 after being informed of the charge, fearing it might tarnish her family’s reputation. . . Out of fear, she decided to confess to the charges on the advice of some well-intentioned persons and prison officers. She did not appoint any legal representative, though she felt uneasy with the contents of the inquiry report prepared by the police.

On 6 November 2008, she was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for defaming the Heir Apparent, with the penalty reduced to six years due to her confession. With tears on her face, she told her story and expressed her confidence with the decision to confess to the charge. . . The case was wrapped up so quietly and the Court has not allowed anyone who is not related to the case to make a copy of the verdict.

At the advice of officials, she is attempting to write an appeal for a reduction of sentence, hoping to get a suspended three-year sentence plus an order to do community service. She hopes the results will be known in the next five or six months."

http://www.prachatai.com/english/printversion.php?id=933

[Sydney08]

That article briefly mentions the case of Harry Nicolaides, a 41-year-old Australian who has been languishing in a Thai jail for 5 months. Harry was arrested on August 31, 2008 at Bangkok Airport on his way back to Australia and charged with lese majeste because of some passages in a book written in 2005 about the Thai royals. Until his arrest, Harry had taught at the Mae Fah Luang University in Chiang Rai and in Phuket before that. He was unaware until his arrest at the Bangkok airport that he had been charged with the crime of lese majeste.

The Thai authorities have resisted any attempts by the Australian government to seek his release on bail pending a trial. As far as I know, the Thai newspapers have never mentioned the arrest or the imprisonment.

http://news.theage.com.au/national/govt-li...81208-6tl9.html

[Kirkland]

This really does sound like Burma. The fact that the Thai newspapers do not even print the news of these arrests and imprisonments is unbelievable. They should be ashamed to call themselves journalists. It's obvious that the authorities are trying to frighten the press and people into silence just like the worst dictatorships around the world.

[Gene]

I have to confess that I never heard of Harry Nicolaides before reading this thread. The image of some farang being arrested at Bangkok airport as he was leaving to go home to Australia, and hauled off to jail for something he wrote in a book three years before, is terrifying. It's a story that should be repeated around the globe with a warning that such uncivilized horrors can and do happen, not in Burma, but in the "Land of Smiles."

[Lucas]

sounds like horror...but it happens also in a so called CIVILLIZED country with a President which name is Bush who smiles to much.......its called..guantanamo bay !!

[Gene]

sounds like horror...but it happens also in a so called CIVILLIZED country with a President which name is Bush who smiles to much.......its called..guantanamo bay !!

As far as I know, there's not a single journalist or academic imprisoned at Guantanamo or anyone else for that matter for the crime of writing something that insults George Bush. Although I agree that the imprisonment of alleged terrorists at Guantanamo without trials is a horror, the idea of comparing that to the arrests of journalists and writers who criticize the government or its leaders is way off base.