On 22 Jan, Kittichai Charnchoengsilpakul, Da Torpedo’s brother, together with some 30 activists, red shirts and monks, presented a petition to the Corrections Department, requesting the agency to provide medical treatment for Daranee.

Thailand should reverse its recent backward slide in respect for freedom of expression, as illustrated by the sharp increase over the past ten months in cases under the lese majeste law.

Readers have sent e-mails to Smart Buy magazine, criticizing a column written by a dentist who talks of Da Torpedo’s molar abscess as bad karma resulting from speaking ill of the monarchy.

On 2 Dec, the Social Move group of activists visited Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul at Khlong Prem Prison.  They found her still active in discussing political issues, despite the fact that inmates are supposed to be kept away from politics through the prison’s various means of censorship.  She was very happy to have received letters from sympathizers in many countries.  

The article was originally written under the request of Fah Diew Kan Magazine in which the Thai-translated version will appear on its latest edition. Pravit Rojanaphruk is currently a Katherine Fanning Fellow for Journalism and Democracy at Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio.

On 27 Oct, Prawase Praphanukul, lawyer for Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul, filed an appeal at the Criminal Court, which in late August had sentenced her to 18 years in jail for lèse majesté.

On 24 Sept, Prawase Praphanukul, lawyer for Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul, together with a group of activists, submitted letters to the embassies of the US and Australia, and the offices of the EU and the UN in Bangkok, asking those countries and organizations to call on Thailand to stop the imprisonment of political prisoners.

Da Torpedo’s lawyer has submitted complaints to the Corrections Department, asking for an explanation of what he alleged as discrimination against his client, including putting her in solitary confinement as a punishment and labeling her as a lèse majesté convict. He also suspected warders of eavesdropping on his talks with his client, and prying into confidential documents.