Ji Ungpakorn responds to the accusation that he fled fighting the case
When the arrest warrant for Ji Ungpakorn was issued yesterday, PPT quoted Police Major-General Phongsak Jiam-orn, who claimed that, “The court showed that Giles ran away from fighting the case.”
Ji has responded to this accusation in a series of recent blog posts. For the English-language version, please see “I do not run away, I fight!” สำหรับ ภาษาไทย, ดู ผมไม่หนี ผมสู้คดีครับ (1) และ ผมไม่หนี ผมสู้คดีครับ (2)
In his response, he lists the eight paragraphs from his book, A Coup for the Rich [available on this site] deemed to contain lesè majesté content. Ji challenges those who are prosecuting him to prove that these paragraphs truly insult the monarchy. He concludes by arguing that “I believe that anyone reading through these paragraphs will conclude that this lese majeste charge is really about preventing any discussion about the relationship between the military junta and the Monarchy. This is in order to protect the military’s sole claim to legitimacy: that it acted in the interests of the Monarchy by destroying democracy.”
Giles is also quoted in a Financial Times (25 March 2009: “Arrest warrant for Thai academic in lese-majeste case”) report on his case. The report states that “Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has said he is looking at ways to amend both the law and the way it is implemented, but Mr Giles said he doubted his sincerity.” Giles is reported as saying, “I’m not surprised [about the arrest warrant]. It seems that the Abhisit government and the army are determined to carry on destroying freedom of speech.”
Clothilde Le Coz of Reporters Sans Frontieres is also cited as stating that, “It [the lesé majesté law] has been used more and more to silence critics, not of the monarchy, but of the government…” .
Comments are closed.