#Thailand - Foreign media probe Tanasak about Yingluck’s passport

Deputy Prime Minister Tanasak Patimapragorn on Tuesday declined to say whether the government will revoke the passport of fugitive former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra after she fled the country days before hearing the court verdict in her negligence case.

Tanasak, in Sydney after overseeing a troupe of 56 Khon mask dancers who performed at the Sydney Opera House, was asked by foreign journalists if the government plans to revoke Yingluck's passport.

Tanasak, who oversees the Foreign Ministry, said: “The Thai government practices the rule of law. As an administration, we can not intervene in the judgment of the court.

"In your country, can you intervene in the court?

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"Thailand is the big country and the government gives freedom to citizens. We don’t follow individuals in terms of where they are going or when they leave the country. So we're following the rule of law. Just as another country."

An arrest warrant was issued for Yingluck by the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions last Friday after she failed to turn up for the reading of the verdict.

Her negligence case is linked to her then government’s controversial rice-pledging scheme.

The court postponed the reading of the verdict until September 27 and ordered the seizure of Yingluck’s Bt30-million bail.

Source - TheNation

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#Thailand - Police set up team to hunt Yingluck after ‘easy’ escape.

Interpol to assist as anti-corruption activist accuses authorities of negligence.

AMID a flurry of blame, accusations and speculation, authorities remain unable to explain how former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra was so easily able to escape justice.

Anti-corruption activist Srisuwan Junya yesterday lodged a petition with the National Anti-Corruption Commission, asking it to investigate the failure of top security officers to prevent Yingluck from fleeing the country.

 Srisuwan focused on Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, who oversees security matters, and police chief Pol General Chakthip Chaijinda, accusing them of being negligent in their duties. 

Prawit, who is also Defence Minister, said the activist has the right to do so, but reiterated that the authorities had no way to prevent Yingluck from fleeing the country.

“How could the authorities know when and where she would flee? Who would know it?” Prawit said at the Defence Ministry, in response to a reporter who pointed out that the authorities had closely monitored Yingluck’s movements even when she went to temples to make merit. The former premier had always complained that security officials and spies followed her everywhere.

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 “Yingluck’s escape was unexpected because she earlier always insisted that she would not flee. And there were police in front of her house all the time,” Prawit said. 

The authorities still have no official explanation as to how Yingluck failed to show up at the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions last Friday. Her whereabouts since have been the subject of intense speculation by the media, activists and observers. 

The court has postponed the verdict delivery to late next month, and has issued an arrest warrant, but nobody has a clear answer as to whether she will return to Thailand. 

Police have set up a team to track her, and the relevant agencies have been closely following movements around border areas, including natural land borders. Officers had been instructed to report the results of the operation every five days, deputy national police chief Pol General Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said.

Police in Lat Phrao have been instructed to check all the surveillance cameras around Yingluck’s house as well as her other residences in Bangkok and her hometown of Chiang Mai, but they have failed to find her, Srivara said.

Speculation denied

According to Srivara, Yingluck was last seen in her Bangkok home at 2pm on Wednesday. Officers from Lat Phrao Police Station, who were responsible for supervising Yingluck’s residence, said other people in the house had confirmed that she no longer lived there. 

Royal Thai Police will now seek the cooperation of Interpol to alert police forces in 190 countries around the world about Yingluck’s current legal status. 

Media citing unnamed sources reported that she had fled via Cambodia and Singapore to Dubai to join her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who has a home there. The government in Phnom Penh dismissed the report, and authorities in Dubai also said they know nothing about Yingluck’s whereabouts.

Pol Maj-General Apichart Suriboonya, head of the police foreign affairs division, said the police had contacted officials in Cambodia and the United Arab Emirates but had received no information. 

Apichart told reporters about normal procedures, saying that Interpol could take “quite some time”. If any member of Interpol located Yingluck, Thai police could seek an international arrest warrant to have her apprehended. However, it would be up to Interpol how the case was conducted. 

Like everybody else, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday denied speculation that the National Council for Peace and Order deliberately let Yingluck slip out of the country, saying it was beyond his expectation that she would flee.

“I didn’t think it would happen. In the morning [of the verdict], I still thought that she would go to court, following the procedure. I respected her,” Prayut said. 

Bombarded with questions about the incident, Prayut said furiously: “Who would let her flee? How come, why did you think like this?”

Prayut said he had instructed security officers to find out how the former premier left the country. They would also look at flaws in the process in order to prevent it happening again.

Prayut, who is also the head of the junta, said it was difficult for the authorities to follow Yingluck |before the court had made its judgment because they respected her privacy. 

Officers had been criticised over their possible violation of human rights, Prayut noted, adding that that had made everything difficult.

Prayut said he didn’t want people to blame the security officers, saying that the media should tone down its criticism. It would be “insane” if officers intentionally let her flee, he said.

Source - TheNation

 

Ex-monk charged with murder for slaying Myanmar boy, 17, at Phuket temple

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A defrocked monk was already being held on drug charges and has now also been charged for the murder of a 17-year-old monk’s assistant at a Phuket temple last Saturday.

The body of Myanmar teen Wei Pew Ar was found outside a monk’s residence at Baan Don Temple in central Phuket at 6am last Saturday.

He had been stabbed to death in a vicious attack. His right arm, believed to have been used to fend off the attack was nearly severed at the wrist.

Wei had been a monk’s assistant at the temple for a year.

Fingerprints on the knife found at the scene matched those of 38-year-old Khitthisak Songkram, Thalang Police Chief Col. Sompong Thiparpakul confirmed Wednesday.

 Khitthisak was a monk at the temple under the name “Phra Khitthisak” at the time of his arrest last weekend.

Blood found on the monk’s robes also matched that of the victim, Col. Sompong added.

“We received the results from tests conducted by Police Forensic Science Center 10 in Songkhla. With this evidence, we charged Khitthisak with murder,” he said.

Khitthisak has already denied the charge and police have yet to reveal any possible motive for the brutal slaying.

Meanwhile, Khitthisak remains in detention at Phuket Provincial Court awaiting trial.

Source - PhuketNews / Coconuts

Myanmar and Thai NGOs support ‘Nation’ reporter hit by suit for ‘defaming’ mining firm

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EIGHTY Thai and Myanmar NGOs have voiced their support for The Nation journalist Pratch Rujivanarom, who has been sued by a Thai mining company over a report about the environmental impacts of a tin mine affecting local people in Myanmar.

The group of 80 human rights and environmental protection organisations led by Reporters without Borders issued a joint statement yesterday urging the Thai government to protect press freedom, decriminalise defamation, and align the 2007 Computer Crime Act with international laws and standards.

The groups also demanded that Myanmar Phongpipat Co Ltd, the Thai mining company operating in Myanmar, withdraw all criminal proceedings against Pratch and The Nation newspaper immediately.

On March 20, Myanmar Phongpipat filed suit against Pratch on allegations of defamation and violations of Computer Crime Act. 

 The company claimed that an article written by Pratch and published in March regarding the impact of the company’s tin mine on villagers in Myaung Pyo village in Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region damaged its reputation.

In the complaint, the mining company said the allegation that the mine had contaminated the river and water supply of Myaung Pyo village was false and the mine had never discharged heavy metals into the environment. 

The water from the mine contained safe levels of manganese, arsenic and lead, which would not harm people’s heath according to international standards, the mining company claimed.

Kriangkrai Chavaltanpipat, managing director of Myanmar Phongpipat, filed suit against Pratch as the first defendant and The Nation as the second for violations of the Criminal Code articles 59, 83, 91, 326 and 328, and Article 14 of Computer Crime Act in Nakhon Pathom Court.

The Nation has tried to reach the mining company, but the company’s lawyer declined to provide any other information relating to the mining operation or the case.

The statement signed by 24 Thai and 56 Myanmar NGOs said the charges against Pratch were a vivid example of the use of overly broad criminal law to diminish freedom of expression and intimidate the reporter.

The groups also insisted that the lawsuit created a chilling effect for the media and human rights defenders, and conflicted with Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Thailand is a state party.

NGOs signing the joint statement included Amnesty International, the Spirit in Education Movement, Earth Rights International, TERRA, the Seub Nakasatien Foundation, the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network, the Green Network Mergui Archipelago and the Dawei Watch Foundation.

The Nation managing editor Jintana Panyaarvudh also expressed her support for the NGOs’ statement and members of the public who shared concerns about media freedom. She said Pratch had performed his duty as a journalist with professionalism and honesty. 

“Pratch reports information that has significance for and for the benefit of the public because the matter has affected the environment and people’s quality of life,” she said.

The Internet Law Reform Dialogue (iLaw) has listed the case as the 49th use of Article 14 of the Computer Crime Act to silence journalists and activists.

Nakhon Pathom Court will conduct a preliminary examination of the case on July 17.

Source - TheNation

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#INDONESIA - Ahok guilty of blasphemy, sentenced to two years

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The North Jakarta District Court has found outgoing Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama guilty of blasphemy for suggesting that some people had abused a Quranic verse to block his re-election bid. 
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The panel of judges led by Dwiarso Budi Santiarso sentenced Ahok to two years in prison for his crime. “The defendant Ir. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama alias Ahok is proven guilty of committing blasphemy," Dwiarso said.
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Ahok, whose term ends in October, has said he will appeal the verdict.
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Ahok was initially charged with blasphemy under Article 156a of the Criminal Code and with defaming clergymen under Article 156. The prosecutors, however, dropped the blasphemy charge in their sentence demand, saying there was no evidence that the governor had committed blasphemy.
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The prosecutors, therefore, demanded that Ahok be sentenced to two years’ probation and one year in prison if he reoffended.
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The blasphemy allegation against Ahok has divided the nation and emboldened radical Islamist groups who claim to speak on behalf of all Muslims. It was also instrumental in causing Ahok’s defeat in the April 19 gubernatorial election.

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Ahok said in his speech in Thousand Islands regency in September last year that some people had been "deceived" by other people using Al-Maidah 51, a Quranic verse some clerics believe prohibits Muslims from electing a non-Muslim leader.
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Source - TheJakartaPost