On June 25, Daranee Charncherngsilapakul’s lawyer requested the Court to seek a Constitutional Court ruling on whether the Court’s decision to hold the trial in secret is constitutional or not, and temporarily suspend the trial until the Constitutional Court gives its ruling.

The defendant argued that the Court’s decision to hold the trial in secret goes against Section 40(2) of the 2007 Constitution which states that a person shall have, ‘the fundamental rights in legal proceedings, in respect of which fundamental assurances must be accorded as to the openness of trial, adequate opportunities to receive information and examine documents, the submission of facts, arguments and evidence, the challenge of judges, trial by judges of a duly constituted quorum and reasoned decisions, judgments or orders.’

And Section 29 of the Constitution was also cited: ‘The restriction of such rights and liberties as recognised by the Constitution shall not be imposed on a person except by virtue of provisions of the law specifically enacted for the purpose determined by this Constitution and to the extent of necessity and provided that it shall not affect the essential substances of such rights and liberties.

The law under paragraph one shall be of general application and shall not be intended to apply to any particular case or person; provided that the provision of the Constitution authorising its enactment shall also be mentioned therein.

The provisions of paragraph one and paragraph two shall also apply mutatis mutandis to by-laws issued by virtue of provisions of law.’

However, the Court dismissed the request, saying that its decision was not contradictory to Section 211 of the Constitution because the defendant had her lawyer to defend her in court and could submit ‘facts, arguments and evidence’ to the court. Therefore, the trial continues.

On June 24, Daranee told reporters that she could not give comments as the regulations of the Corrections Department forbids detainees to give interviews to reporters without prior permission from the Director-General.

However, she issued a press release, stating that she could not accept the Court’s secret trial and would not ‘accept or respect’ any outcome of the proceeding, and would ‘fight to the end.’

She also submitted a handwritten letter dated June 23 to the Director-General of Criminal Court Judges to complain about the secret trial.