<p><span lang="EN-GB">On 8 July, the Appeals Court upheld the 50,000 baht fine on Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul for insulting privy councillors and generals behind the 2006 coup.</span></p>
<p>The Constitutional Court has postponed its ruling on the case of Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul to 17 Oct, the Criminal Court told her lawyer Prawase Praphanukul yesterday.</p>
By Andrew Spooner |
<p>In the latter half of 2009, shortly after one of Thailand’s most notorious political prisoners, <a href="http://bit.ly/hbn5cV">Daranee Chanchoengsilpakul</a>, was sentenced to 18 years in prison under Thailand’s draconian lese majeste laws, an experienced human rights advocate contacted Amnesty International’s International Secretariat’s Thai-based researcher, Ben Zawacki. The reason for the correspondence was to try to get to the bottom of why Mr. Zawacki and Amnesty had been almost completely silent on Daranee Chanchoengsilpakul’s incarceration.</p>
<p>On 1 Mar, the Appeals Court denied bail to Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul, citing the same reasons as Court of First Instance, which had dismissed the bail request on 23 Feb, that the alleged offences carry severe penalties and affect the revered monarchy, and that she might flee.</p>
<p>On 19 Oct, Kittichai Charnchoengsilpakul told Prachatai that last week he and a foreign academic visited his sister Daranee in prison. The prison authorities did not permit the foreign academic to visit her, citing the more restricted regulations of the prison. Kittichai was told by Daranee during his visit that the authorities told her that red shirts would not be allowed to visit her. </p>
<p>Daranee has been sentenced to 18 years in jail for lèse majesté offences, and her case is now on appeal.<br />
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<p>The trial of the webmaster of the Norporchor USA website has been scheduled to start in February 2011. The Appeals Court has rejected Daranee Charnchoengsilapakul’s bail request for fear that she might flee.</p>
<p>According to Matichon online, Pol Maj Gen Vichai Sangprapai, Commander of the 1st Metropolitan Police, said on 31 March that the police had been asked to bring Sondhi Limthongkul to the prosecutor by 2 April.</p>
<p>On 22 Jan, Kittichai Charnchoengsilpakul, Da Torpedo’s brother, together with some 30 activists, red shirts and monks, presented a petition to the Corrections Department, requesting the agency to provide medical treatment for Daranee.</p>
By Amnesty International |
<p>Thailand should reverse its recent backward slide in respect for freedom of expression, as illustrated by the sharp increase over the past ten months in cases under the lese majeste law.</p>
<p>Readers have sent e-mails to <a href="http://smbuyer.consumerthai.org/">Smart Buy magazine</a>, criticizing a column written by a dentist who talks of Da Torpedo’s molar abscess as bad karma resulting from speaking ill of the monarchy.</p>
<p>On 2 Dec, the Social Move group of activists visited Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul at Khlong Prem Prison. They found her still active in discussing political issues, despite the fact that inmates are supposed to be kept away from politics through the prison’s various means of censorship. She was very happy to have received letters from sympathizers in many countries. </p>