The father of ‘Pai Dao Din’ has given up hope in the Thai justice system, saying there is no point in trying to appeal the court’s verdict.

On 18 September 2017, the Isaan Record reported that Viboom Boonpattararaksa, the father of Jatuphat ‘Pai Dao Din’ Boonpattararaksa, a law student and key democracy activist imprisoned for royal defamation, said he will not submit an appeal request for his son.

“If I have a choice and the Appeal Court maintains justice without prejudice and try the case in accordance to the evidence and logic, I do not want to put an end to my son’s case at the Court of First Instance. But the channel to go forwards does not exist, so there is no use to do it,” said Viboom.

He added that his son agrees with him.

As a lawyer himself, Viboon elaborated that he presumes that the upper counts will confirm the same sentence of two years and six months imprisonment handed down to his son.

Even if the appeal court accepts the request, the court is likely to deny releasing Jatuphat on bail, Viboon pointed out.

Jatuphat is accused of lèse majesté for sharing on his Facebook account a controversial biography of King Vajiralongkorn published by BBC Thai.

He was the first person to be arrested for lèse majesté under the reign of the new King. Despite the fact that more than 2,000 people shared the same article on Facebook and millions read it, he was the only one arrested for lèse majesté.

Jatuphat was recently awarded the prestigious Gwangju Prize for Human Rights in recognition of his fight against military dictatorship.

Jatuphat ‘Pai Dao Din’ Boonpattararaksa (file photo)