Somyot subject of Amnesty International appeal | Prachatai English

Somyot subject of Amnesty International appeal | Prachatai English
Amnesty Internationa, January 13, 2013

Amnesty International has issued an Urgent Action alert for Somyot Prueksakasemsuk ahead of the verdict in his lèse majesté trial scheduled for 23 January.

The appeal, which can be expected to trigger a deluge of messages to the Prime Minister, Minister of Justice and National Human Rights Commission from Amnesty International members around the world, names Somyot as a Prisoner of Conscience.  It also notes that Article 112 of the Criminal Code violates the right to freedom of expression under international human rights law and contravenes Thailand’s obligations as a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

URGENT ACTION

EDITOR AT RISK OF UNJUST SENTENCE IN THAILAND

Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, a labour activist and editor of the Voice of Taksin, is a prisoner of conscience. He has been detained since April 2011, having been charged in relation to publishing articles deemed critical of Thailand’s monarchy. Authorities have repeatedly turned down his requests for bail.

In May 2012, Somyot Prueksakasemsuk's trial ended; he is still awaiting the verdict. The court has rescheduled the date for announcing the verdict three times, most recently from 19 December to 23 January 2013.

He was arrested on 30 April 2011, shortly after launching a campaign to gather support for a parliamentary review of Article 112 of the Thai Criminal Code. He was charged and tried under Article 112 which prohibits any word or act which “defames, insults, or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent, or the Regent”. The charge carries a sentence of up to 15 years’ imprisonment for each offence.

Since 2006, authorities in Thailand have increasingly used Article 112 to silence peaceful dissent. Article 112 violates the right to freedom of expression under international human rights law, as it goes far beyond permissible restrictions of this right. Thailand is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and is legally bound to uphold the right to freedom of expression.

Please write immediately in Thai, English or your own language:

• Expressing concern that Somyot Prueksakasemsuk has been detained on account of his peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression;
• Calling for charges against him to be dropped, and for him to be immediately and unconditionally released from detention;
• Calling for him to be given redress for the months he has spent in detention and for the authorities to amend Article 112 so that it complies with Thailand’s obligations under international human rights law, and to suspend its use until it has been amended in such a way.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 22 FEBRUARY 2013 TO:

Prime Minister
Yingluck Shinawatra
Government House
Pitsanulok Road, Dusit District
Bangkok 10300, Thailand
Fax: +662 280 0858; +66 2 288 4016
Email opm@opm.go.th
Salutation: Dear Prime Minister
  
Minister of Justice
Pracha Promnok
Ministry of Justice
22/f Software Park Building,
Chaeng Wattana Road,
Pakkred Nonthaburi 11120, Thailand
Fax: +662 502 6699; +662 502 6734; +662 502 6884 Email: om@moj.go.th
Salutation: Dear Minister

And copies to:
National Human Rights Commission
120 Chaengwattana Road
Laksi District
Bangkok 10210
E-mail : info@nhrc.or.th

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.

Free Somyot Now | Prachatai English

Free Somyot Now | Prachatai English
September 19, 2012

Joint statement 

 

Human rights and labour organizations today urge that magazine editor and human rights defender Somyot Prueksakasemsuk be immediately released from 17-month pre-trial detention.  If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison under Article 112 of the Criminal Code (the lèse-majesté law) for the publication of two articles deemed insulting to the monarchy.  The group further called on the Thai authorities to uphold international standards of freedom of expression, and to stop using Article 112 and arbitrary detention to criminalize or restrict free speech.

The outcome of Somyot’s trial is a litmus test of Thailand’s commitment to protect the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, the group said

Somyot has been held in prison since his arrest in April 2011, five days after he launched a petition campaign to collect 10,000 signatures required for a parliamentary review of lèse-majesté law.  Lengthy pre-trial detention of Somyot clearly violates Thailand’s obligations to refrain from arbitrary detention.

On 18 September, the Thai Criminal Court cancelled a court hearing in his case scheduled for 19 September, prolonging his pre-trial detention indefinitely.  The Criminal Court did not provide reasons for the cancellation or a new date for the hearing.

Background

Authorities have turned down Somyot’s eleven requests for release on bail. In denying him provisional release, the court has not provided adequate justifications, as required by Section 40(7) the Constitution and Section 107 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which restrict pre-trial detention to exceptional circumstances, and by the International Covenant on Civil Political Rights (ICCPR), which Thailand has ratified.

During the past two years, Thai courts have repeatedly denied bail to alleged lèse-majesté offenders. The UN Human Rights Committee, which oversees compliance of States with the ICCPR, has reminded States that pre-trial detention may, in itself, be a violation of the rights to liberty and presumption of innocence.

Thailand’s lèse-majesté law prohibits any word or act, which “defames, insults, or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir-apparent, or the Regent”. The law overrides the Thai constitution and places the country in contravention of its international legal obligations to uphold international standards of freedom of expression. Thai civil society groups, families of those prosecuted under the lèse-majesté law, and United Nations human rights experts have repeatedly called for a public debate on reform of the lèse-majesté law. When Thailand’s human rights record was examined in October 2011 during the Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human Rights Council, its member states addressed more than a dozen recommendations to amend or repeal both the lèse-majesté law and the 2007 Computer Crimes Act that criminalizes online defamation under the same provision.  Four of the alleged lèse-majesté offenders, including Somyot, have pending requests to the Constitutional Court to rule on the constitutionality of Article 112.  On 19 September, Somyot was expected to learn if the Constitutional Court had ruled on whether Thailand’s lèse-majesté law complies with guarantees of freedom of expression and the press in the 2007 Constitution.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression “reiterate[d] the call to all States to decriminalize defamation” in his report (A/HRC/17/27) to the UN Human Right Council in May 2011. The UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders guarantees the right “[t]o submit to governmental bodies and agencies and organizations concerned with public affairs criticism and proposals for improving their functioning and to draw attention to any aspect of their work that may impede the realization of human rights.” Thailand has increasingly criminalized writers and editors of publications that carry articles deemed offensive to the monarchy.