Pravit’s lese majeste allegation under investigation

Lisa Gardner at Siam Voices has a brief article that confirms the lese majeste allegation against journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk is being investigated by the police. No charge has yet been laid.

The allegation apparently relates to articles written for Prachatai, The Nation and even a tweet. PPT has posted all of them (see one, two, three, four, five, six and seven). The accusation is made by serial lese majeste accuser Wiput Sukprasert, an ultra-royalist based in Roi Et.

Pravit was questioned by police, as was the editor of Prachatai.

Pravit accused of lese majeste

Multiple lese majeste accuser Wiput Sukprasert, an ultra-royalist based in Roi Et, on 16 May 2012 has “filed a lèse majesté complaint against Nation reporter Pravit Rojanaphruk, for his contributions to Prachatai.”

Read the Prachatai story here.

An update on Suraphot’s lese majeste case

Readers may recall a case lodged in Roi-et, by a yellow-shirted serial lese majeste accuser, against academic and Prachatai contributor Suraphot Thawisak.

Suraphot is accused, along with others, of lese majeste related to posts at the independent media outlet Prachatai. Prachatai reports that Suraphot has had his police summons delayed until 17 February 2012.

Meanwhile, an investigating police officer has appeared before a panel at the National Human Rights Commission. When yellow shirt activist Wiput Sukprasert lodged his complaint, Pol Lt Col Sukhit Phetyotha stated that:

police practice in handling complaints under Article 112 of the Criminal Code, police investigators are obliged to forward all cases to the regional and then central police for consideration, including even the cases they have already decided not to pursue.

So Roi-et police established an investigation with its team “interrogating those involved in the case and checking IP addresses with the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology.” The outcome was a meeting “chaired by the Regional Police Commander [that] decided that Suraphot and an unidentified Prachatai reader should be prosecuted as alleged.”

Suraphot was then issued with a summons. If he fails to appear before police, an arrest warrant will be issued. It is the summons that he is expected to answer in a couple of days.

This is yet another case that makes Nitirat’s case for it. More, it makes a case for abolishing a law that is only used for political repression.

More on Suraphot’s lese majeste case

In our initial post on the lese majeste summons to university lecturer and Prachatai columnist Suraphot Thawisak, PPT stated that the “case that appears to have been processed under the Yingluck Shinawatra government.” However, after reading the story at Prachatai, we are not so sure of this statement.

The Prachatai account states that Suraphot “has received a summons to report to the police in Roi Et province in the Northeast as a result of a local yellow shirt’s complaint against him for his comments on the Prachatai website. On 2 Dec, Suraphot received a summons from plainclothes policemen, issued by Roi Et police and dated 22 Nov, to report to Roi Et Provincial Police Station on 7 Dec to answer accusations of lèse majesté.”

The report states that the police complaint “was lodged by Wiput Sukprasert, a local yellow shirt in Roi Et who uses the alias ‘iPad’ on the Prachatai website.”

According to this account, the summons relates to comments Suraphot made on Somsak Jeamteerasakul’s article “How will we situate the monarchy in Thai society and politics?” that was published by Prachatai on 10 August 2010. Apparently police first made inquiries on 6 October 2010. And nothing more happened until he received the summons.

It seems this case has a longer history that began under the Abhisit Vejjajiva regime. It is notable, however, that the case has been processed under the Yingluck government.