<div>Bangkok South Criminal Court today ordered for the immediate issuance of an arrest warrant for Andy Hall with a view to ensuring Hall’s attendance in the court to hear a verdict of the Appeals Court on multiple appeals against his September 2016 criminal conviction. </div> <div> </div> <div>Diplomats from the EU Mission to Thailand alongside the UK, Finnish and Swedish embassy officials and officials from OHCHR and ICJ attended today’s hearing alongside Hall’s legal defence team, a source at the Court informed Finnwatch. </div> <div> </div> <div>The court was original </div>

<div>A Bangkok court has ordered a British labour activist to pay damages to a Finnish fruit company. The verdict has sabotaged attempts to expose human rights violations in Thailand, said a human rights organisation.</div> <div> </div> <div>On 26 March 2018, the Phra Khanong Provincial Court in Bangkok, read its verdict on a civil damages claim against Andy Hall, filed by the pineapple company Natural Fruit Co Ltd, ordering Andy Hall to pay 10 million baht in damages to the company. </div>

<p>The Thai criminal court has dismissed criminal defamation charges against Andy Hall, a British human rights defender and migration researcher. This is one of the four libel cases filed by a processed fruit company after Hall publicised poor human rights records and abusive labour conditions in the company’s factories.</p> <p>Phra Khanong Provincial Court, Bangkok, on Wednesday morning dismissed the first criminal libel case against Andy Hall, a freelance human rights and migration researcher, due incorrect investigation procedures. &nbsp;</p>

<p>Finnwatch Researcher Andy Hall Detained in Cell by Thai Court on Natural Fruit Charges Prior to Court Approval for Industry Bail Out, Passport Confiscated.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt="" src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2931/14434350516_e07035d072_z.jpg" /></p> <p><span><em>Andy Hall and his team, with TFFA/TTIA representatives, in front of the Prakanong Court today prior to Hall's detention.</em></span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>Thailand's authorities must immediately launch an investigation into &nbsp;the operations of Natural Fruit and its parent company NatGroup. Human rights issues must be tackled also in the ongoing free trade agreement negotiations between Thailand and the EU.</p> <p></p>

<p>Pineapple processing company Natural Fruit is suspected of serious violations of basic human and labour rights.</p> <p>According to the workers of a Natural Fruit factory in Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand, the company &nbsp;employs around 200 undocumented migrants from neigbouring Myanmar, including dozens of 14–17 year old children. About 700 of the factory's 800 employees are migrants.</p>