Just yesterday PPT posted from a Bangkok Post report that stated a request by Jatuphat Boonpattaraksa (Pai) to leave prison to sit his final exams for Khon Kaen University (KKU) had been rejected on Monday but that “authorities agreed to arrange for him to take the tests behind bars.”
That turns out to be horse manure. In fact, Prachatai refers to such reports as “rumors.” A dean at KKU has denied that he will be permitted take the examination in jail.
Assistant Professor Khitibodee Yaibool, Dean of KKU’s Law Faculty, said the university has no plan to facilitate examinations for Pai.
We should note that and assistant professor is a low rank but that a deanship is often a politicized administrative position and is likely to be filled by academic dolts. KKU is one of the few yellow-tinged outposts in Khon Kaen, although we have no idea of Assistant Professor Khitibodee’s politics or of the relationship between the dean and the local military thugs.
The report seems to imply that Assistant Professor Khitibodee has blamed Pai for the turnabout, saying he needed to make “a special request to the university to ask for such procedure.” Pai has apparently refused to do this and now faces expulsion although his mother has requested he be able to maintain his student status.
Of course, if his bail hadn’t been revoked to punish him for “challenging” state power he’d have taken his examination.
Political Prisoners in Thailand 