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Somyot vows to fight on

Fri, 06/04/2012 - 17:38 | by prachatai

On 5 April, at Bangkok Remand Prison Somyot Prueksakasemsuk said that he would not plead guilty in his lèse majesté case in order to seek a royal pardon like other lèse majesté defendants and convicts, because he was innocent and if he confessed, he would feel uncomfortable.

‘I have been persuaded to fight in court, so I want to try to fight.  Those who have pleaded guilty have done so because they have no trust or hope in the judicial process.  The right to bail is just non-existent.  The injured parties have never had to appear in court even once.  I fight because I want to prove to myself whether there is any justice left in lèse majesté cases,’ he said, adding that his fight, at least, would be a historical record.

For him, to win or lose the case makes no difference, because, if freed from prison, he would still face ‘a bigger cage’.  So far, he has performed his duties as a good citizen of the country by participating in politics and exercising the right to freedom of expression, he said.

‘The problem is innocent people have to plead guilty to find a way out. What does this mean? This is deeply painful.  So I’ve thought I’d better fight.  At least, let them be the judge,’ he said.

Somyot was arrested on 30 April 2011 at the immigration checkpoint at Sa Kaew, while he was leading a red-shirt tour group to enter Cambodia.  He was charged with lèse majesté for two articles published in the Voice of Taksin magazine for which he was the editor.

He has been detained without bail ever since.  From Nov last year to Feb this year, he was taken to four provinces, including Sa Kaew, Phetchabun, Nakhon Sawan and Songkhla for court hearings of prosecution witnesses.

The next hearing dates are scheduled for 18-20, 24-26 April and 1-4 May at the Criminal Court on Ratchadaphisek Rd, Bangkok.

Source: 

http://www.prachatai3.info/journal/2012/04/39973

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Comments

#26615 - by Frank G Anderson (visitor) () | Fri, 06/04/2012 - 18:10

I continue to implore Thai

I continue to implore Thai people to take this issue into the courts in a class action suit, criminal and civil.

#26617 - by john francis lee (visitor) () | Fri, 06/04/2012 - 22:10

I suppose so Frank... but the

I suppose so Frank... but the Kourts are such a sham. Do you remember how they treated Khun Angkana and her daughter... they had 'no standing' in the disappearance of their respective husband and father.

Do you remember the videos of the Supreme Court and the Democrat Party, in the Democrat dissolution case?

There is no real law in Thailand. The Kourts have two functions, neither concerned with law or justice :

  1. The job of the Kourts is to punish innocents designated for persecution. They are a 'punishment system'.
  2. The job of the Kourts is to hold immune officials abusing their power. They are an 'exoneration system'.

Any suit such as you propose would initially fall under 2 above. Then, when the guilty were exonerated, they'd punish those who had had the temerity to bring such cases in the first place, fulfilling their function under 1 above.

I think the only way forward that is open to Thais at this point is via the CDA : to seize control of the Constitutional Drafting Assembly and make sure they get a document that respecifies the structure of the Kourts, the Military, and the Police and which decentralizes the government. As long as the 'elite' in Bangkok hold the reins they'll keep driving the poor Thai people as though they were donkeys.

#26618 - by john francis lee (visitor) () | Fri, 06/04/2012 - 22:42

Somyot is pursuing

Somyot is pursuing vindication alone.

PPT notes Amnesty International's latest non-announcement on political prisoners in Thailand :

So serious questions remain: first, who are the prisoners of conscience; and second, what, exactly, is AI doing for and about them?

The answer is undefined and nothing.

Just as the elected government of Thailand, the Shinawatra II Regime, has utterly stonewalled the plea to submit requests for their pardon by the nine, soon to be ten, who have asked it to do so:

  1. Ampol Tangnopakul - 20 years in prison,
  2. Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul - 15 years,
  3. Wanchai Saetan - 15 years,
  4. Surachai Danwatthananusorn - 7.5 years,
  5. Nat Sattayapornpisut - 4.5 years,
  6. Suriyan Kokpuey - 3 years and 15 days,
  7. Warawut Thanangkorn (or Suchart Nakbangsai) - 3 years,
  8. Sathian Rattanawong - 3 years, and
  9. Joe Gordon - 2.5 years.

Shinawatras to redshirts : Drop Dead!

#26621 - by Hobby (visitor) () | Sat, 07/04/2012 - 10:57

Shinawatra's must be doing

Shinawatra's must be doing something right in someone's eyes

#26622 - by john francis lee (visitor) () | Sat, 07/04/2012 - 15:05

Hard to tell if the

Hard to tell if the traditional 'elite' are trying to buy sympathy from the Thaksinistas with worthless pieces of paper like this, or if this is actually considered the 'pay' the Shinawatras have earned by hewing to the 'elite' line. It's all the Shinawatras are likely to get for their efforts at 'reconciliation' in any case. The traditional 'elite' hate the Shinawatras to their very bones.

Abhisit and the Royal Thai Army killed about 90 Thais in a batch to hang on to power for about 9 months...

Looks like the Shinawatras are going to abandon 10 redshirts at a time... month by month....

Somyot, the editor of “Red Power” and of the “Voice of Thaksin”, is a non-person in the view of the Great Man Himself, and is left to pursue vindication alone.

With a friend like Thaksin, you don't need enemies.

#26625 - by john francis lee (visitor) () | Sun, 08/04/2012 - 08:08

Status quo in Thailand

Status quo in Thailand protected by so-called “reconciliation”