OHCHR Visit Somyot

On the 15th October the OHCHR Asia Regional representatives visit Somyot and discuss his case. The OHCHR will support his case over the coming months and we are hopeful that their support will strengthen Somyot’s chances of release in December.

Thai Constitutional Court

The Thai constitutional court rules that A112 is not against the Thai constitution. Despite a number of legal opinions against this decision, the court has ruled.

For the results in Thai click here

This means that the verdict of the case against Somyot is likely to be reached on the 19th December.

UN Human Rights Visit

Today a UN Human Rights representative visited Somyot in prison. We are delighted!

Amnesty Thailand covers Somyot’s story

See Amnesty Thailands coverage of Somyot’s case here

INGOs support the campaign

Joint Media Statement-Somyot-FINAL FINAL CCC logo (19Sep2012)

Joint statement

Free Somyot Now
Wed, 19/09/2012 – 15:08 | by Full Article

Joint statement
Human rights and labour organizations today urge that magazine editor and human rights defender Somyot Prueksakasemsuk be immediately released from 17-month pre-trial detention. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison under Article 112 of the Criminal Code (the lèse-majesté law) for the publication of two articles deemed insulting to the monarchy. The group further called on the Thai authorities to uphold international standards of freedom of expression, and to stop using Article 112 and arbitrary detention to criminalize or restrict free speech.

The outcome of Somyot’s trial is a litmus test of Thailand’s commitment to protect the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, the group said

Somyot has been held in prison since his arrest in April 2011, five days after he launched a petition campaign to collect 10,000 signatures required for a parliamentary review of lèse-majesté law. Lengthy pre-trial detention of Somyot clearly violates Thailand’s obligations to refrain from arbitrary detention.

On 18 September, the Thai Criminal Court cancelled a court hearing in his case scheduled for 19 September, prolonging his pre-trial detention indefinitely. The Criminal Court did not provide reasons for the cancellation or a new date for the hearing.

Background

Authorities have turned down Somyot’s eleven requests for release on bail. In denying him provisional release, the court has not provided adequate justifications, as required by Section 40(7) the Constitution and Section 107 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which restrict pre-trial detention to exceptional circumstances, and by the International Covenant on Civil Political Rights (ICCPR), which Thailand has ratified.

During the past two years, Thai courts have repeatedly denied bail to alleged lèse-majesté offenders. The UN Human Rights Committee, which oversees compliance of States with the ICCPR, has reminded States that pre-trial detention may, in itself, be a violation of the rights to liberty and presumption of innocence.

Thailand’s lèse-majesté law prohibits any word or act, which “defames, insults, or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent, or the Regent”. The law overrides the Thai constitution and places the country in contravention of its international legal obligations to uphold international standards of freedom of expression. Thai civil society groups, families of those prosecuted under the lèse-majesté law, and United Nations human rights experts have repeatedly called for a public debate on reform of the lèse-majesté law. When Thailand’s human rights record was examined in October 2011 during the Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human Rights Council, its member states addressed more than a dozen recommendations to amend or repeal both the lèse-majesté law and the 2007 Computer Crimes Act that criminalizes online defamation under the same provision. Four of the alleged lèse-majesté offenders, including Somyot, have pending requests to the Constitutional Court to rule on the constitutionality of Article 112. On 19 September, Somyot was expected to learn if the Constitutional Court had ruled on whether Thailand’s lèse-majesté law complies with guarantees of freedom of expression and the press in the 2007 Constitution.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression “reiterate[d] the call to all States to decriminalize defamation” in his report (A/HRC/17/27) to the UN Human Right Council in May 2011. The UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders guarantees the right “[t]o submit to governmental bodies and agencies and organizations concerned with public affairs criticism and proposals for improving their functioning and to draw attention to any aspect of their work that may impede the realization of human rights.” Thailand has increasingly criminalized writers and editors of publications that carry articles deemed offensive to the monarchy.

New court date

The next court date will be the 19th December. That’s an additional two months that Somyot is being held in Bangkok Prison. We have yet to get confirmation when a verdict will be announced. In the meantime please keep submitting your protest emails on the Clean Clothes Campaign website.

Rich get bail poor go to jail

Rich get bail, while poor go to jail
Published: 18/09/2012 at 04:10 AMNewspaper section:Bangkok Post
Today, the latest in a series of lese majeste trials will begin at the Criminal Court on Ratchadapisek Road.

Lese majeste prisoners Daranee Charncherngsilapakul, left, Somyos Preusakasemsuk, above right, and ‘Uncle SMS’ Ampon Tangnoppakul all saw their repeated bail requests rejected, while more powerful and wealthy suspects are routinely freed for other serious offences.

Mr Surapak, whose last name was withheld, is a promising 40-year-old programmer from Bung Kan province. He was arrested on Sept 2, 2011 at his Bangkok residence.

The police have accused him of posting defamatory remarks about the royal family on Facebook several months ago. He was denied access to a lawyer on the day of his arrest.

Mr Surapak was denied bail four times, even though, for his last request, the last bail guarantor was the Justice Ministry. Mr Surapak pleaded not guilty and said his defence could be better prepared if he was temporarily freed.

Mr Surapak’s predecessors at the Bangkok Remand Prison, six lese majeste suspects, have also been experiencing the same fate of bail denials.

Somyos Preusakasemsuk, 51, has had his bail requests refused 11 times. The Criminal Court has scheduled a hearing in his case for tomorrow. But no one thinks a verdict will be delivered, as the Constitution Court has yet to rule upon Somyos’s appeal that challenges the constitutionality of penal code Section 112.

The only female lese majeste prisoner, Daranee Charncherngsilapakul (aka Da Torpedo), has had her bail requests refused every time. She, and Thai-Singaporean Wanchai Tan (who is being held separately at Bangkok Remand Prison), have served the longest time behind bars for lese majeste charges.

Another high-profile lese majeste case where bail was denied involved “Uncle SMS” prisoner Ampon Tangnoppakul. He died in prison last May, just a month after his lawyer had started preparing to seek a royal pardon.

Ampon was convicted of sending four SMS messages deemed insulting to the monarchy, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in November 2011.

The Court of Lower Instances, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court refused to grant him bail on eight separate occasions, because of the long sentence he was ordered to serve and the gravity of the offence he had committed.

The courts were reportedly not convinced that Ampon had committed the crime. The judges reasoned that if he were released, he might jump bail.

When faced with claims that the elderly Ampon was ill, the courts deemed that his condition was not yet life threatening and that the prison infirmary could provide for his medical needs.

It’s not only lese majeste victims who are routinely denied bail.

Those dubbed “political prisoners” at the Temporary Prison at Laksi _ most of whom are grass-roots supporters of the red-shirt movement facing hefty penalties and long prison terms _ face the same situation.

Interestingly, their legal battles for bail have rarely been brought up by the mainstream media.

Meanwhile, the public is getting confused, even exasperated, with the criteria used by the court to grant bail and to mete out prison terms following a series of controversial court decisions.

Decisions that have affected the court’s credibility include the light sentence for a teenager whose reckless driving caused nine deaths last year; granting bail to five former policemen who had been convicted of extrajudicial killings less than a week earlier (three of whom were sentenced to death); and granting bail to a tycoon’s heir who ran over a police officer on a motorcycle with his Ferrari _ the officer was killed and the well-heeled young man fled the scene.

Many of us remember another controversial verdict in 2001 when a National Institute of Development Association (Nida) lecturer who killed his wife out of jealousy got no real jail time.

The killer was given only a few hours of community social work to compensate for his crime.

Understandably, the red shirts were flabbergasted after learning that the leader of the yellow shirts, Sondhi Limthongkul, who was sentenced to 85 years in jail for violating security laws, got his prison term reduced by half because of his confession.

Sondhi faces at least 20 years in prison, yet he was freed on bail pending his appeal.

As if this was not unfair enough, several core red-shirt leaders such as Jatuporn Prompan and Korkaew Pikulthong, who were charged with terrorism and lese majeste, got their bail approved.

For the record, the Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand (TRC) has already recommended that Section 112 of the Criminal Code be amended. The TRC said the offence should be punishable by a prison sentence not exceeding seven years or a fine not exceeding 14,000 baht, and that high-level authority should be given before prosecuting such cases.

The commission has also urged the government to deal with calls for the temporary release of prisoners swiftly. Unfortunately, the TRC’s proposals to the leaders of the House, the Senate, the opposition, and the government have gone unheeded.

With so many cases pointing to a double standard, it is understandable and inevitable for the public to feel that the legal system is unfair to the poor, and unjust to prisoners of conscience. Justice delayed is justice denied. Sadly, this is not the exception in our our legal system, but the norm that routinely applies to the weak and poor.

Achara Ashayagachat is Senior News Reporter, Bangkok Post.

Somyot’s trial hearing cancelled

We have just had news from Somyot’s lawyers that his hearing due on the 19th September has been cancelled. No reason has been given and we will update you as soon as we have further news.

Happy Birthday Somyot!

Today Somyot had his birthday party in Bangkok Prison. Here are some pictures of his party