A former spokesman for ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Jakrapob Penkair had to resign as a minister in the pro-Thaksin government in May 2008 after being accused of slandering the king in a talk at Bangkok’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) on 29 August 2007. His case remains under investigation and senior members of the Democrat Party-led government have asked the police to accelerate the case when they came to power in December 2008.
On 13 January 2009, it was reported that nearly 1,000 pages of evidence and 4 DVDs had been collected by police and sent to the Attorney General. Jakrapob maintained his innocence and was set to appear again on 5 March 2009. When Jakrapob appeared he was informed that the pre-trial court hearing had been postponed for 30 days.
On 30 April 2009: it was reported that public prosecutors postponed their meeting Jakrapob until 15 June. They will decide then whether to indict him.
Jakrapob is said to have asked for the postponement saying he had “some business to attend to overseas.” The prosecutors granted the request because “further investigation and questioning of witnesses, as well as translation of relevant documents, had not been completed, according to Kayasit Pisawongprakan, director-general of the criminal litigation division at the Attorney-General’s Office.”
The report concluded: “If Jakrapob fails to report to the prosecutors on June 15, his guarantors would be asked to find him or an arrest warrant would be issued for him, Kayasit told a press conference at the Attorney-General’s Office.”
On 4 September 2009 it was reported that the prosecution agreed to a fifth deferral on a decision on whether to indict Jakrapob. This was apparently at the request of Jakrapob’s lawyer, who said “his client was on important business abroad.” It is reported that if Jakrapob “did not show up on Oct 7, a warrant would be issued for his arrest…”.
A Transcript of Jakrapob’s FCCT speech: Jakrapob at the FCCT
Video links to Jakrapob’s FCCT speech: a series of short YouTube clips, begin with “Pa Penn talks about Pa Prem”
News on Jakrapob Penkair’s case:
Bangkok Post, 4 September 2009: “Prosecution defers Jakrapob case”
asiaoneNews, 30 April 2009: “Cambodia not sheltering Thaksin” (includes a report on Jakrapob’s case)
Deutsche Press-Agenture, 5 March 2009: “Lese majeste case postponed in Thailand”
Reporters Without Borders, 6 February 2009, “Jakrapob Penkair: Red and Yellow”
Bangkok Post, 13 January 2009, “Jakrapob case continued 8 weeks”
Asia Times, 13 June 2008, “‘Crusading spirit’ adrift on Thai winds”
Xinhua, 30 May 2008: “Thai PM’s Office Minister resigns over lese majeste charge”
New Mandala, 29 May 2008, “An update on Jakrapob Penkair and alleged insults to the king”
Bangkok Pundit, 30 August 2007, “Jakrapob at the FCCT”
5 Comments
April 7, 2009 at 1:08 pm
[...] abyss of lese majeste hell. Clearly, his circumstances are different to those experienced by a Jakrapob Penkair, a Sondhi Limthongkul or a Sulak Sivaraksa, who have all also been recently accused of this most [...]
July 1, 2009 at 5:18 pm
[...] complained that the police must proceed on the case against Jonathan Head and citing Jakrapob Penkair’s presentation at the FCCT on 29 August 2007 and the sale of DVD of that presentation as evidence [...]
August 18, 2009 at 11:49 pm
[...] on Democracy movement leaders”) has a story with some translation of a column by Jakrapob Penkair on the struggle for democracy. He says: “The incidents of 14 Oct 1973, 6 Oct 1976, and May [...]
September 2, 2009 at 12:29 am
[...] his “renewed … red revolution agenda” without actually drawing the connections. Jakrapob is also facing lese majeste charges and his call for political change involves a hard line against [...]
September 4, 2009 at 9:27 am
[...] for the fifth time, deferred a decision on whether to indict former PM’s office minister Jakrapob Penkair on a charge of lese majeste, this time until Oct 7.” An Attorney-General’s [...]
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