Thai military court proceeds with trial of mentally ill man accused of lèse majesté

A military court in northern Thailand on Monday held a witness examination hearing in a lèse majesté case involving a man with a record of mental illness.

According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), the village headman and the assistant headman of Ban Pasak Village of Thoeng District in the northern province of Chiang Rai on Monday morning testified in the lèse majesté case of Samak P., a 48-year-old man accused under Article 112 of the Criminal Code, in the Chiang Rai military court.

The hearing was held after three months of delay because the military court repeatedly postponed the hearing, TLHR reported.

Samak was arrested by the police and assistant village chief on 8 July 2014 after he reportedly tore apart a picture of the King at the entrance to the village while carrying a knife. He confessed that he destroyed the picture on the day of his arrest and has remained under custody since.

At the hearing, the village headman and the assistant said that Samak seemed drunk and smelled of alcohol when he was arrested.

The military court has scheduled the next hearing on 10 July 2015.

Samak has been diagnosed for several years by Chiang Rai Hospital as suffering serious mental illness and has to take medication to battle visual and auditory hallucinations.

Last year, at the deposition hearing of the case, Anon Nampa, the defence lawyer, said that his client admitted to tearing the image, but claimed that he did not intend to do so because the act was done when he was unaware of his own actions, and the case therefore should be dropped.

The lawyer then presented medical documents to prove that Somsak has suffered from serious psychosis. Samak said that he constantly hears whispers.

The military prosecutor, however, objected and said since the defendant did not plead guilty as charged the trial must proceed.

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