Amnesty International Annual Report still concerned with Freedom of Expression, Prisoners of Conscience in Thailand

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Suluck Lamubol

May 23, Bangkok -- Ongoing suppression of freedom of expression, little accountability for the 2010 political violence and the internal armed conflict in the Deep South are the main human rights concerns for Thailand in the 2013 Amnesty International Annual Report.

Parinya Boonridrerthaikul, Director of Amnesty International Thailand, said at the report launch at the Royal Benja Hotel that the use of the lèse majesté law, as Article 112 of the Criminal Code is known, and the Computer Crime Act is depriving the people's right to speak. The Constitutional Court ruling that the lèse majesté law was constitutional and parliament’s refusal to consider a revised draft bill failed to make any improvement to the situation.

Amnesty International Thailand calls on the Thai government to reform Article 112, especially with regard to the ability for anyone to file complaints and the disproportionately severe penalties. 
 
It also continues to call for the unconditional release of Prisoners of Conscience convicted of lèse majesté, she said.  Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, a magazine editor who was sentenced to 11 years in January this year, is the only person officially designated by AI as a Prisoner of Conscience in Thailand.
 
According to the Asian Legal Resource Centre, a regional human rights organization based in Hong Kong, six persons convicted of lèse majesté are currently serving prison terms and one more is behind bars awaiting trial. The annual human rights report of the U.S. State Department suggested that up to 18 persons may be currently imprisoned under the lèse majesté law. 
 
“I am asking you to think whether in everyday life, we are able to express our opinions which are different from others and not fear that the person we are talking to would go to the police and sue us for lèse majesté?” asked Sukanya Prueksakasemsuk, Somyot’s wife, who was invited to speak on freedom of expression at the report launch. 
 

Sukanya Prueksakasemsuk
 
“Are we able to say that our partners are red shirts? That we admire the Thaksinomics way of running the economy? That we do not like to stand for a long time to receive members of the royal family because it is too hot? Or what if we are too lazy to stand up for the royal anthem played in the cinema? The worst is that we are not able to write and question the love and faith that are existing,” Sukanya said.
 
“This shows that Thai society is lacking a free flow of information. It is presented with only one-sided information and is judgmental of others, especially with violence when logic and reasoning do not function anymore,” she said. “We could no longer call ourselves a civilized society.” 
 
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Amnesty International urges Thailand to abolish death penalty

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Takato Mitsunaga

Bangkok, May 23 – Amnesty International Thailand called for the abolition of the death penalty in Thailand, one of 21 countries where capital punishment is still in use.  Currently, 706 Thais are under sentence of death, according to the Amnesty International Human Rights Report 2013.


Parinya Boonridrerthaikul, director of Amnesty International Thailand
 
Parinya Boonridrerthaikul, the director of Amnesty International Thailand, said during the launch of the report held at the Royal Benja Hotel that in Thailand, of these 706 prisoners, 67 had exhausted all appeals as of May 1, 2013.
 
In August 2012, 58 prisoners had their death sentences reduced to life imprisonment. However last year, more than a hundred prisoners were sentenced to death, double the number from the previous year, she said. 
 
“Amenesty International Thailand is asking the government to reform the death penalty law, by changing the penalty to life imprisonment instead,” said Parinya. She added that there are currently 55 criminal offences in Thai law that carry the death penalty.
 
Amnesty International Thailand also called on Thailand to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (OP2), which was adopted and proclaimed by the UN General Assembly on December 15, 1989.
 
According to AI, 114 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice.  21 countries are known to have executed 682 prisoners in 2012, compared to 680 in 2011, according to Amnesty International. However, this number excludes what are estimated to be thousands of unreported executions carried out in China.  Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Yemen still continue to use the death penalty on extensive scale; executions in those four countries accounts for 99 % of all executions in the Middle East.
 
Japan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India carried out executions last year after some years with no executions, while Singapore and Malaysia made efforts to abolish the death-penalty law and Vietnam did not carry out any of executions for the first time in decades. In Myanmar, all death row prisoners had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment in 2012, but another 17 people were subsequently sentenced to death.
 
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Gold shop thefts on the rise, police practice response

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PHUKET: With millions of baht worth of gold being snatched from Phuket gold shops over the last year, Phuket police and gold shop owners joined together for a gold shop crime drill earlier this week.

“The recent increase in the number of gold shops and supermarket robberies has made it necessary for shop owners and police to know exactly what to do in these scenarios,” said Phuket Provincial Police Commander Choti Chavalviwat.

Though Cherng Talay Police station is the first station on the island to conduct a gold shop crime drill, Maj Gen Choti has ordered all police stations across the island to run through the drill and be prepared. Read more...
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2 Drunk Australian Tourists Involved In A Brawl In Phuket

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2 tourists from Australia came to Phuket for holiday, when they went out at night, they became drunk and unaware of their actions. When the drunk Australian tourists tried to go into a well-known pub in Phuket, they weren’t permitted to go in due to their drunk state. They were angry that the doorkeeper or bouncer didn’t let them in, they then assaulted an American tourist in front of the pub to express their angriness. It was also reported that they assaulted the bar girls and many more tourists as well. Tourists and nearby people helped to catch the Australians, they were then sent to a nearby hospital as they were injured. The incident happened at Pathong sub-district, Phuket Province. Read more...
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Pattaya celebrates “Visaka Bucha”

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The three most important holy days of the year for Thai Buddhists all include the word “Bucha”, which means to pay homage. But the most auspicious of the three is Visakha Bucha, which...

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Police Raid Gambling Den In Soi Bongkoch, Pattaya City.

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PATTAYA – May 23, 2013 [PDN]; At about 00.10 AM Pol.Lt.Col. Krissanat Thanasuphanatt, Vice Director of Detective Division at Pattaya police station together with other police forces went to raid a gambling den at a Thai style house in Soi Bongkoch, South Pattaya. Police arrested 18 suspects, seized many sets of cards, dices and cash. [...] Read more...
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TEAM Thailand Joins the 2nd APWS on 14th -20th May 2013

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TEAM Thailand Joint Venture participated in the seminar and exhibition of the 2nd Asia-Pacific Water Summit (2nd APWS) which was entitled “Water Security and Water-related Disaster Challenges: Leadership and Commitment” hosted by Thailand on 14 – 20 May 2013. The event was held at the International Convention and Exhibition Centre Commemorating His Majesty’s 7th Cycle Birthday Anniversary [...] Read more...
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Bangkok scores on TripAdvisor

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BANGKOK, 23 May 2013: TripAdvisor places Thailand’s capital city, Bangkok, at the top of its Travellers’ Choice Asia Destinations list of 25 cities. Released Tuesday, Bangkok ranked first of all destinations in Asia, while Chiang Mai was in sixth place. Bangkok was ahead of Cambodia’s Siem Reap and Phnom Penh (fifth and 23rd), Vietnam’s Hanoi [...] Read more...
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Visakha Bucha Day

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BANGKOK, 23 May 2013: Visakha Bucha Day is an important religious festival in the Buddhist calendar, falling usually in May on the full moon day of the sixth lunar month. When a year has an extra eighth lunar month –Adhikamasa (there are 13 full moons in that year)– the Visakha Bucha Day falls on the [...] Read more...
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Bangkok sticks with FI route

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BANGKOK, 23 May 2013: Despite heavy criticism that the proposed F1 race circuit on Rajdamnoen Avenue will damages ancient properties and cause noise pollution in Bangkok’s historical district,  Ministry of Tourism and Sports confirms it is sticking to its choice of race venue. Tourism minister, Somsak Phureesrisak, said there was no intention to change the [...] Read more...
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Central to expand to Samui

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BANGKOK, 23 May 2013: Central Pattana Plc will invest in two major shopping mall projects; CentralFestival Samui and CentralPlaza Salaya, valued at Bt7 billion and due to open in 2014. Samui is a popular holiday island in South Thailand, while Salaya is residential area with universities on the western edge of Bangkok. Both will be [...] Read more...
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Changing Pattaya’s image

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Mitsubishi Electric has donated several outdoor exercise  machines to  Pattaya City to assist in the public campaign to encourage people  to become fit.  Anan Bunjerdtham, the company’s  general manager, presented the million-baht worth of equipment to Pattaya Mayor Itthiphol Kunplume at a ceremony, held at Pratumnak Hill, celebrating Mitsubishi’s 40th anniversary in Thailand. Read more...
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