On 8 Aug, the Criminal Court granted bail to Norawase Yospiyasathien who had been arrested and detained by police three days earlier for lèse majesté.
Norawase, 22, a fresh graduate from Kasetsart University, was arrested on 5 Aug and has been charged with offences under Article 112 of the Criminal Code and the 2007 Computer Crimes Act.
His arrest warrant was issued on 14 Oct 2010, when he was studying in his last year at the university, as a result of a complaint lodged by a Deputy Rector of the university who had received a complaint from another student.
Nipon Limlamthong, the Deputy Rector, claimed that he had to file the police complaint because he had been pressured by the University Council and wanted to protect the reputation of the university.
According to the Manager, Norawase is alleged to have copied texts from the Same Sky web-board, currently www.weareallhuman.info, onto his Windows Live page.
His family placed a land title deed worth 860,000 baht as surety for his bail which was set at 500,000 baht by the court.
In response to the arrest, two groups of academics and activists, Santiprachatham and Free Kasetsart, have launched sign-on campaigns to oppose the Deputy Rector’s action.
Over 400 people have already signed on each of the campaigns.
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