Skip to main content

On 28 March, the Criminal Court sentenced Ekkachai Hongkangwan to 5 years in prison for selling CDs containing an Australian television documentary and copies of WikiLeaks documents, but reduced the prison term by one third to 3 years and 4 months due to his useful testimony during trial.

The court also fined him 100,000 baht for selling CDs without a license, and the fine was reduced to 66,666 baht.
 
His lawyers and his father applied for his bail, and expected to hear the result by this evening.
 
The police arrested Ekkachai, 35, at Sanam Luang on 10 March 2011 after enticing him to sell a CD for 20 baht, and seized over 100 CDs, a CD burner and 10 copies of WikiLeaks materials.  He was later released by the court on 500,000 baht bail.
 

Since 2007, Prachatai English has been covering underreported issues in Thailand, especially about democratization and human rights, despite the risk and pressure from the law and the authorities. However, with only 2 full-time reporters and increasing annual operating costs, keeping our work going is a challenge. Your support will ensure we stay a professional media source and be able to expand our team to meet the challenges and deliver timely and in-depth reporting.

• Simple steps to support Prachatai English

1. Bank transfer to account “โครงการหนังสือพิมพ์อินเทอร์เน็ต ประชาไท” or “Prachatai Online Newspaper” 091-0-21689-4, Krungthai Bank

2. Or, Transfer money via Paypal, to e-mail address: [email protected], please leave a comment on the transaction as “For Prachatai English”