Thai Court Extends Activist’s Arbitrary Detention

Freedom House is disappointed by the Thai criminal court’s decision to delay the verdict until January 23 in the lèse majesté trial of activist and magazine editor Somyot Prueksakasemsuk.  This delay is further evidence of the restrictive environment in Thailand for freedom of expression.

Somyot has been in jail since April 2011, awaiting trial and a verdict for allegedly violating Article 112 of the Criminal Code – the “lèse majesté law.” With this new delay, he will have spent nearly two years in jail by the next court date.

The government began targeting Somyot after he circulated an online petition to request a judicial review of the lèse majesté law.  Prosecutors then leveled charges against Somyot for his role as the editor of the magazine The Voice of Taksin, which printed two articles critical of the monarchy. Somyot's prolonged pre-trial detention and his transfer between multiple prisons led the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to rebuke the Thai government for violating its commitments under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The UN’s Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Mr. Frank La Rue, also condemned Thailand’s growing repression of free speech, and the lèse majesté law was highlighted as a major human rights concern by the UN Human Rights Commission’s Universal Periodic Review of Thailand in 2011.

Thailand is rated Partly Free in Freedom in the World 2012 and Freedom of the Press 2012. The government’s prosecution of internet speech critical of the monarchy stifles open debate and contributes to Thailand’s Not Free ranking in Freedom on the Net 2012. The lèse majesté law and the 2007 Computer Crimes Act, which allows the Thai government to hold service providers liable for content written by third-party visitors that is deemed “offensive,” have been used in several high-profile prosecutions against bloggers, internet activists, and even social network users in recent years.

Learn more:

Freedom in the World 2012: Thailand

Freedom of the Press 2012: Thailand

Freedom on the Net 2012: Thailand

Blog: Freedom at Issue