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NOYES HIT WITH IRON BAR AT HOME DEPOT

September 22, 2016, 2:31 am
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Alas - sad news from across the pond in North Carolina where Drew Noyes, currently on the run from a jail sentence and conviction for extortion in Pattaya, Thailand, has been hit by an iron bar in his local Home Depot.


It is reported that even though he complained to Home Depot personnel they would not take him to the local hospital - so he had to drive himself.

'We are all concerned about Daddy (writes his one of his sons using his old man's Facebook page - so its probably Drew himself) 'He got smashed in his face and had to get a CAT scan'.

.....'He can't work and is in bed'.

Noyes - apart from being a partner in the notorious One Stop Legal Service Center in Pattaya (no such organisation exists on the books of the Business Development Bureau but he has changed the name so if punters sue - it will be wrong) he claims now to be running Real Estate Development Corp.


Home Depot staff would not take him to the hospital

I can't find a listing for that.


Poor old Home Depot. I feel a law suit coming on. Here's the evidence he will present on the right.

But congratulations are in order. Having fathered 10 children by two wives, one common law wife, a niece, and a maid Drew has announced his engagement to a Miss Pawadee Jittrerom who bore him a baby boy after he fled.

Its a long distance engagement I understand. He will be arrested if he returns to Thailand. 

If Homeland Security allow more of his Thai wives into the US Trump should be told.








Pictures: James Noyes
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FOREIGNERS THREATENED IN BAD WEEK FOR THAI MILITARY

September 29, 2016, 3:55 am
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'REFLECTS BADLY ON THAILAND? IT WILL BE BANNED

In a deeply unhappy week for the Thai military government it has retaliated by threatening foreigners to shut up for face arrest.

The junta has had a series of bad news breaks.



First up was Thailand’s self-appointed Prime Minister General Chan-Ocha, who threatened to ban the film ‘Operation Mekong’ if it reflected badly on Thailand.


Then up came a photo of a Hmong hill tribe child whose picture allegedly stealing a wrist watch from a tourist at the temple on Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai went viral – after which Thai police conducted an investigation concluding the child’s Hmong mother would sue had the foreigners still been in Thailand.

And finally of course is the report by Amnesty International on 74 cases of torture, which includes water boarding and electric shocks to the genitals, committed by the military junta since it seized power in 2014.

In the first case the massacre of 11 Chinese on a boat on the Mekong in 2011 was almost certainly carried out by a force of the Thai military called Pha Muang, who then pushed the bodies off to be found later down river. 

The most comprehensive report is here headed 'Murder on the Mekong'. Looking at the promo material above, this film by a Hong Kong film-maker is not going to reflect too well on the Thai military - and Prayuth Chan-Ocha surely must know it.

Shan warlord Naw Kham was later executed, or so the Chinese announced, but even in the Chinese judgment it is stated that 9 Thai military men were also involved. The public trial of Naw Kham was expedient to both sides.




As for the Hmong child stealing a wrist watch from a tourist on Doi Suthep. The truth here is almost irrelevant.  The picture of the child should never be published. 


Hmong - not related to story
You can fairly safely bet however that the threat to sue was not the idea of the Hmong mother, but Thai officials.  If the Hmong or any other hill tribe people had the cash to use Thailand’s computer crime act they could lodge millions of cases against their Thai 'landlords'.



And as for the Amnesty International report ‘Make Him Speak by Tomorrow’ Amnesty International officials said they called off a planned launch of it in Bangkok after they were intimidated by officials.

What a splendid way to draw attention to the report.

According to Time: “At the report launch on Wednesday, which was to be attended by a representative of the U.N. office of the high commissioner for human rights, authorities warned Amnesty’s foreign representatives that speaking publicly at the event would be a violation of Thai labor laws.”

That was an interesting reason.  A representative of the UN High Commission on Human Rights was due to attend.

All in all, the general message is ‘Say anything bad about Thailand (true or not) and you’re out on your ear.'

The Guardian newspaper this week embarked on publication of an investigation by ‘Freeland’ into the South East Asia hub for trafficking in endangered and or protected species. The tonnage of wild life and bones trafficked through Thailand was horrific.

The report exposed Vietnamese and one half Vietnamese half Thai dealer, and a Thai buyer, and today comprehensively implicated the Laos government in the trade.  Unfortunately, Bangkok based Freeland, a predominantly US concern, has not as yet come up with the comprehensive goods on Thailand or the Thai military general who was at the top of the trade.

I must say I have enjoyed some of their previous investigations in Thailand. There seems to be a reoccurring them. Every time they get near the bad guy…it always goes belly up.

Anyway its only Wednesday. The London Sun has carried a story about a couple buying a dream paradise island holiday in Thailand only to find their beach idyll was a building site.


Can anything else go wrong?


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'I CAN'T REMEMBER THE LAST SIX MONTHS' SAYS DREW NOYES

October 6, 2016, 4:47 am
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IT WAS THE ACCIDENT LAST WEEK I BLAME

As I anticipated American Drew Walter Noyes,61, is heading for legal action as he is ‘feeling mad at Home Depot, 5511, Carolina Beach Road, Wilmington, North Carolina.’

He claims a pole snapped, and knocked him out. Now, he says, he has 6 months’ memory loss and his dentist, he claims, says 5 teeth need fixing.



The memory loss appears not to have affected his ability to remember what happened to him in the store. Will he remember the birth of his latest by his umpteenth Thai mistress?



Lawyers for Noyes should of course be aware of his fame in Wilmington where he was subject to an investigation by Scott Gold of the ‘Star’ way back on April 1 1995 who described his auto-biographical details as a 'myriad of lies', and then went on to expose he dodgy share dealings and property deals and of course alleged sexual harassment of a junior member of staff by demanding oral sex if she wanted to increase her hours.  (Wilmington Star Pages 1 and 4 ‘Trouble follows developer)



No doubt he will be claiming he is the boss of a law company in Thailand. I trust Home Depot will disabuse themselves of that one quickly.  



Lawyers in Thailand will be happy I am sure to furnish Home Depot’s attorneys with the relevant court convictions for extortion and the arrest warrants now against him for extortion and making false accusations.

And should he actually win a case of negligence against Home Depot – well there are plenty Americans whom he has duped who will have a claim on that cash.

UPDATE:



"Unable to work since Sept 16 because a 3 foot 30 lb steel rod snapped on a chain and flung into my forehead, nose and teeth at Home Depot while checking lumber as instructed by 2 store employees. 
This recording Home Depot employee seems to say the injury to me "was the worst he has seen" and he never saw anything like what happened to you (me)....it has happened many other times in other of the hundreds of HomeHe also says employees were prohibited by Home Depot policy to take me to the hospital. Instead, he called a nearby Urgent Care Clinic and gave me driving instruction to it. I did.  
That clinic told me they must direct me to the emergency hospital because of concussion stating I urgently needed medical care for my face and a CAT scan- not an X-Ray as the Home Depot guy told them on the phone - for possible injury my brain.  
This detour in the opposite direction from the hospital cost me valuable time. My body was almost completely drained 
After a few minutes I pulled off the highway and made a video dying declaration just in case. Then drove very, very slowly. 
When I stumbled into the Regional Hospital Emergency Room the attending immediately put me in a wheelchair pushed me ahead of other patients directly to a hospital room for CAT scans and to clean and close facial lacerations. On the 27th my doctor told me my concussion caused my poor equilibrium, lethargy, fatigue, confusion, headaches and memory loss which may return in months and in a rare case never return".
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Registered child sex abuser made mockery of Thailand's 'black list'

October 9, 2016, 5:38 am
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'STAN THE MONKEY' MOCKED  THAILAND ON FOUR DIFFERENT PASSPORTS

A convicted child sex offender, who was deported from Thailand eight years ago after he was caught teaching in a temple school, avoided a ‘black list’ by simply returning to the country multiple times to teach again by simply changing his name.

Following a route used by criminals Alan Smith, who was first exposed on this site and in the SUN newspaper in the UK after we photographed him coming out of the school, returned again using the name Alan Anumm, then again as Alan Burton-Howson, and then again as Alan Stewart, to gain teaching work in Thai school.

Tracked down by the SUN in the UK Smith, now 62, who gained a little fame as ‘Stan the Monkey’– the mascot of Accrington Stanley Football Club, and as a prize winner in the British tv quiz show 'The Weakest Link' said:

“I know changing my name looked a bit dodgy but I didn’t want to get arrested again - I just wanted to go back to put something into the country I love.

“I was put on sex offenders’ register but that’s in the past now and I was never banned from working with children.”

The ex-Butlins redcoat was jailed for six months in August, 2005 and placed on the sex offenders’ register for seven years for a sex attack on a 14-year-old girl.

Burnley Crown Court heard evidence of a vile “penetrative” assault in which a pool cue was used.

Smith photographed outside Bangkok temple school (Andrew Chant)


He was deported from Thailand as ‘persona non grata’ after we exposed that he had lied about his educational qualifications to get the job at the Nongyai temple school in north Bangkok. 

He claimed to have had a degree from Manchester University, and to have worked for the United Nations.

But he returned to Thailand under the name Alan Anumm.  He was arrested on his return to the UK in February 2009 and charged with being in breach of the Sex Offenders Act by failing to notify the authorities that he was travelling abroad and changing his name without notifying the authorities.

Deported as Alan Stewart for 'overstay'

His third name was Howson-Burton taken, he said, from his mother’s side of his family. His fourth assumed identity “Alan Trevor Stewart” - was chosen because it was his stage name when he was a Redcoat. 



The differently numbered passports enabled him to re-enter Thailand, where he taught at Phi Pun School and Nakhon Si Thammarat Provincial Vocational College, near Tung Song in the south of the province, last year.

Smith - employed through a Thai agency called E&W Learning - was arrested for outstaying his visa in December last year and held in a detention centre before finally being kicked out in April.

Under the auspices of the National Crime Agency Thai schools can check if British citizens have convictions for sexual offences when they apply for work.  But it seems no such checks were made.

His repeated returns to Thailand were brought to our attention by a fellow teacher who claimed that Smith admitted whom he was and kept talking about the girls at his school.  But he made up many stories, said the teacher, and was always borrowing money.

When Smith was first deported he told the local Lancashire Telegraph that he could not take his Thai wife, a former go-go dancer, with him because: 

"My wife won't come with me because she knows how I have been treated in England and hates the country. As far as she is concerned it is a vile and disgusting place.”

He later claimed that she was standing by him and they were expecting a baby together.

But on dating sites in Thailand he claimed he was the victim of a Thai wife who had cheated him out of everything.

A spokesman for FACE – the Foundation Against Child Exploitation, which was instrumental in Smith’s first deportation said:

 “This man is a convicted paedophile who has been deceiving authorities to return to Thailand to get teaching jobs time and time again. 
“It is a matter of great concern and we are continuing to make inquiries into the case.”

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FINNS TO FLY IN FOR TRIAL OF MIGRANT WORKERS RIGHTS ACTIVIST ANDY HALL

July 9, 2016, 1:15 am
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The executive director of Finnwatch, the consumer group which produced a critical report on the Thai fruit canning company 'Natural Fruit' citing its treatment of migrant Burmese labour is to fly in from Helsinki to Thailand to the trial of British team member Andy Hall.



In the long running farce in which Natural Fruit has selected Hall as the scapegoat and is suing him for the equivalent of US$100 million and seeking a seven year jail sentence, the Senior Vice President of the Finnish supermarket chain 'S Group' will also take to the stand.


The libel and computer crime act cases have been going on since 2013. 

As a result of the report 'Cheap has a High Price'  'S' group has banned Natural Fruit products from its chain and they are also widely banned throughout Europe. Efforts are being made to ensure they are not imported under different names.

The following is the Finnwatch press statement:




Finnwatch Executive Director and Senior Vice President of retail chain S Group to give testimony at Andy Hall's trial 

Finnwatch's executive director Sonja Vartiala and the senior vice president for sourcing at the biggest Finnish grocery retail chain S Group Jari Simolin will give testimony for the defence during researcher Andy Hall's criminal trial on 12 July in Bangkok.  

The hearing relates to criminal defamation and computer crimes charges brought by the pineapple exporter Natural Fruit Company Ltd. against Andy Hall more than three years ago and accepted by Bangkok South Criminal Court for trial in August 2015. 
The charges have been widely criticised as judicial harassment in response to Andy Hall's legitimate and peaceful work as a human rights defender. 

Pineapple juice concentrate produced by Natural Fruit has been used to make pineapple juice sold in Finland. Andy Hall interviewed Natural Fruit workers for the report that Finnwatch published in 2013. The report exposed serious human and labour rights violations at Natural Fruit's pineapple processing plant in Prachuap Khiri Khan province in Thailand. 

Altogether Natural Fruit has brought four criminal and civil cases against Andy Hall, of which the criminal case currently on trial is the most serious one.  If convicted, Hall could face seven years in prison. 

– The responsibility for writing and publishing the report in question lies squarely with Finnwatch. The prosecutions that Natural Fruit have brought against an individual member of the research team are not only groundless but also questionably motivated, said Vartiala. 

The hearings of the witnesses in the case began already in May. After the prosecution witnesses testimony was completed, the defence witnesses have now begun to be heard. In June, in addition to Andy Hall's own 3 day testimony, Dr. Darian McBain, who is the sustainable development director at one of the world's largest tuna and sea food producers, the Thai Union Group, also gave testimony. 
Jari Simolin - S Group

– As a witness for the defence, the S Group wants to show its support to a free civil society. Instead of taking disputes to a court, attempts to solve issues through transparency and dialogue should be made, said Lea Rankinen, senior vice president for sustainability at S Group. 

Several European Union countries including the UK and Finland have sent their observers to earlier court hearings in cases against Andy Hall. The Finnish Ambassador to Thailand is expected to attend the hearing on 12 July.
The last witnesses for the current proceedings were originally scheduled to appear in court on 27 July. 
The court verdict was expected in September. However, translation challenges and the resultant cancellation of foreign witness defence testimony during the last court hearing in June 2016 will likely result in additional delays to the end of this trial. 

The S Group stopped purchases from Natural Fruit in 2013 because Natural Fruit would not agree to independent, international social responsibility audits. Last month Finnwatch and civil society organisations in ten other European countries sent an open information request to national customs' officials regarding imports of Natural Fruit products to their country. 
In their requests, the organisations argued that possible forced labour or other serious human rights violations in the production chain of consumer products is material information that the consumers have the right to when making purchasing decisions. 
The organisations consider it possible that Natural Fruit products are still being marketed in Europe by actors that have so far avoided publicity. This is however impossible to conclusively rule out without transparency over information on imports.

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The Death of Thailand’s King

October 15, 2016, 6:50 am
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Up to and since the announcement of the death of the King of Thailand I have considered writing something. But in short I have little to say that has not already been said, and what I might say would not be constructive.

Suffice to say the secrecy and the laws against commenting on the Thai monarchy always troubled me during the 25 years I worked in Thailand as a journalist. 

I have written stories of course and they have tended to be complimentary, even fawning – such as the cute story of the King and his dog for ‘The Times’– which was incorporated into a book compiled by Denis Gray of AP and the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. 

After giving permission for it to be republished I felt a slight sense of unease particularly when there were other better stories to be told. I also felt I was joining the establishment.

I do remember adding a few paragraphs on a ‘Royal’ story in which I mentioned the Crown Prince in a less than flattering way after which British Express newspapers were banned from Thailand.

The Daily Mail Website Mail Online was of course blocked after it put up the video of the Crown Prince’s birthday party for his pet poodle – Air Vice Marshall or something Foo Foo. *

Being a correspondent and not being able to report on one of the major stories in Thailand with any sort of accuracy was disturbing.

The fact is Thais loved their King, who, I am sure, was a good man and to question anything to do with the monarchy was taboo.

So of course I express sympathy my Thai friends on this occasion and sorry for their loss. 

Having said that, journalist-authors such as Andrew McGregor Marshall and Paul Handley have done excellent work in lifting the veil and at great personal risk to themselves and their families.
I have joined them back in the other world. 

Penetrating the superficial crust of the ‘Land of Smiles’ I too found to be a risky business – but the windmills I tilted at were the systematic corruption and criminality in the system.

Today my ‘Thai’ children fortunately can choose the characters they love or pay homage to and seem quite happy living under the world’s new longest serving constitutional monarch Queen Elizabeth II.

I do not expect any short term changes in Thailand. But in the long term only two things can happen; dictatorship or democracy. Regression or progression. There is no middle path. I hope the progress is not brutal.


*Apologies if I have Foo Foo’s military rank wrong.  I really am not going to waste my time looking it up.

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ACCUSED SEX TRAFFICKER TO HELP THAILAND’S INTERNATIONAL IMAGE

October 30, 2016, 8:41 am
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THAI DICTATOR HOPES FOR GOOD PUBLICITY FROM ACTOR STEVEN SEAGALL

I have been having a little hibernation organising my files and doing some private writing. However recent pictures of Hollywood B movie actor Steven Seagal posing with Thailand’s dictator General Prayuth Chan-Ocha caused a retching moment.



It’s not that I can stand the sight of this guy or his B movies which normally go straight to vdo. He may well have a big fan base. It’s the utter hypocrisy of the occasion.

It was one of those Glenda Slagg of Private’s moments. ‘Don’t it make ya sick!’

Seagal, it was reported, had come to pay his respects to the late King Bhumipol of Adulyadej. 

He is also reported to be a devout Buddhist, lover of peace dogs, and all things good. On the other hand, he represents the Russian arms manufacturer ‘Orsis’ making promotional videos for the company and has described Vladimir Putin as ‘one of the greatest living world leaders.’





Alleged victim Kayden Nguyen (CBS)
And his Hollywood career has been littered with complaints of sexual assault and harassment including allegations of keeping Russian sex slaves, sex trafficking and sexual assaulting a Vietnamese American woman he had hired. Just Google. it’ll keep you busy for half an hour. 

These he has successfully fought off with expensive lawyers and reported sizeable under the table payments.
He has also been described as the biggest jerk to have been on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in the U.S.

Now, he says, he plans to make a film called ‘Attrition’ in which the hero will assist Thai police hunt down human traffickers.
Some mistake here surely. Were not the Thai police and army THE human traffickers of recent Thai history?

General Prayuth and Steven Seagal seem to have a lot in common humour wise. Top officials of Thailand’s Department of Public Relations were there hoping that Seagal could improve Thailand’s image.  Some foot shooting going on here.


Enjoy Seagal's 'Attrition'

Having been in Bangkok for many years during his visits. I can say with confidence it’s true he does have a special love for Thailand and especially Thai women.  

This and his activities at the Sheraton Hotel, Sukhumvit, between the Cowboy and Nana sex entertainment areas (though I do not think he personally entered these area) were the source or problems between him and local facility companies.

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THAI SUPREME COURT TO RULE ON ANDY HALL'S ACQUITTALS

October 31, 2016, 8:41 am
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Thailand's Supreme Court will rule this week on decisions to acquit migrant workers activist Andy Hall of defaming the Natural Fruit Company.

Andy Hall was acquitted at the Bangkok Criminal Court and at the Appeal Court. It seems that he should be acquitted again, but nothing is written in stone in Thailand, and clearly political and face saving moves have been taken against him - and his causes.


'Clucking in Clucking Out'.

Thai police actively pursued the defamation case against him which in most civilised countries is not a criminal offence. They also pursued theft charges in the case of Burmese workers who complained about conditions in a chicken plucking factory. The workers were accused of stealing their clocking in and clocking out 'Time Cards which they had taken to show the Labour Department.

Here is the statement from FINNWATCH


Thailand’s Supreme Court to Rule on Natural Fruit vs. Andy Hall Criminal Defamation Case Appeal on November 3rd 2016
A ruling by Thailand's Supreme Court on the legality of the two times dismissal of criminal defamation charges filed by Natural Fruit Company Ltd. and Thailand's Attorney General against Finnwatch researcher and British migrant worker activist Andy Hall will be read on Thursday Nov. 3rd 9am at Prakanong Court in Bangkok, Thailand. Hall is required to attend the hearing in person.
The criminal case prosecution, dating back to July 2013, relates to an interview Hall gave to Al-Jazeera English in Myanmar in April 2013 concerning his earlier criminal prosecution by Natural Fruit Company Ltd. This case was the first of four criminal and civil cases filed against Hall by the Prachuap Khiri Khan pineapple processing company to reach trial following publication of a Finnwatch report Cheap Has a High Price in January 2013. Hall coordinated field research and conducted migrant worker interviews for this report which outlined migrant worker allegations of serious labour rights violations at the company's processing plant.
This particular case has already been dismissed twice by courts of both first and second instance (Prakanong/Appeals Court) on the grounds of flawed unlawful interrogation processes during police investigation of the case and given the allegedly defamatory act was committed in Myanmar.
The hearing has two likely verdict outcomes. Firstly, the Supreme Court could reject the appeal again on legal grounds. If the court did so, the joint plaintiffs could no longer appeal and after almost four years, this case would finally be closed. Secondly, the Supreme Court could accept the appeal and order the Prakanong Court of first instance to rule on the facts of the case as per witness testimony during the original 6 day trial in September 2014. The criminal defamation charges in this case carry a maximum penalty of 1 year imprisonment and/or a fine of up to 20, 000 Thai Baht.
Less than two months ago on September 20th 2016, the Bangkok South Criminal Court found Andy Hall guilty in the other criminal case on charges of criminal defamation by publication and Computer Crimes brought by Natural Fruit Co Ltd against him. He was subsequently sentenced to four years' imprisonment, reduced by one year and suspended by two years and ordered to pay a fine of 200, 000 baht reduced to 150,000 baht. Once the fine was paid to the Court by Thai Union Group, the Thai Tuna Industry Association and Finnwatch, Andy Hall was released from temporary detention, his passport returned and restrictions on his freedom of movement removed.
Andy Hall and his legal team are currently preparing to appeal the Bangkok South Criminal Court ruling on grounds of both fact and law but have yet to be provided a written copy of the verdict to be used as the basis of the appeal.
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CONVICTED 'BOILER ROOM' FRAUDSTER AND ALLEGED KIDNAPPER TAKES A BANGKOK STROLL

November 1, 2016, 10:17 am
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WHERE TO NEXT FOR JAMES GUIDO EGLITIS?

Australian James Guido Eglitis, aka James An, who was first exposed on this site as a boiler room fraudster in the U.S. and wanted on kidnapping charges in Australia, has surfaced in Bangkok after escaping robbery charges in Cambodia.


In Bangkok yesterday. In mourning?
The 70-year-old career criminal and con man slipped into Thailand at the weekend after being released by Cambodian police.

He had been arrested in October last year in Sieam Reap with New Zealand national Brett Michael Hastie, 44, for the alleged September 29 robbery and assault of British man David Scotcher. 


Scotcher was reported to have left the country in fear for his life. Hastie was released some time ago. The details of Eglitis’ release are sketchy. 



Under arrest in Cambodia with Hastie

Eglitis is well known for impersonating police officers included the FBI and Australian Federal Police.

Newspaper reports claimed that Australian authorities were considering seeking his extradition from Cambodia.   But they made no attempt to do so.

Whether they would seek extradition from Bangkok is also questionable. Relationships between the Thai military government and western governments are strained and there is little dialogue.



He made a chapter in this book
The Australian government may be reluctant to call in a favour from the Thai military particularly for a person of such little significance as Eglitis despite the seriousness of charges brought against him in Queensland.

In 2007 a Brisbane court committed Eglitis to stand trial in a higher court on charges of kidnapping, deprivation of liberty, robbery, impersonating a police officer and possessing restricted items. 
But for his full colourful background follow this link.

http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2014/05/exposed-escaped-kidnapper-lurking.html






file pic
Meanwhile Eglitis has been circulating around bars in the Queens Park Plaza area of Sukhumvit 22 in Bangkok and strolling between the Holiday Inn there and the Honey Guest house and knocking back a few in the Joy Bar and Butterfly, er, down Honey Lane.

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ANDY HALL STRIKES BACK AFTER SUPREME COURT JUDGES IN HIS FAVOUR

November 4, 2016, 10:53 am
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BUT STILL HE'S GOING THROUGH HELL

COMMENT

Congratulations are in order today for Andy Hall after the Supreme Court in Thailand finally dismissed a libel case brought over an interview he gave al-jazeera television describing conditions for Burmese migrant labourers at a Natural Fruit plant in the Thai province of Prachuap Khiri Kan.

Congratulations as well to the Thai courts. This case went through the Prakanong Court, the Appeals Court, and the Supreme Court all in the space of three years.  That's something of a record only beaten by the time it takes to sentence fishermen to death for giving Thailand a bad reputation for murdering tourists, which I estimate was about four weeks in the case of backpacker Katherine Horton on Koh Samui.

It's also 12 years quicker than it took libel cases being brought against me by dodgy businessmen* in Pattaya to get to the Supreme Court where I won one, and lost one.  That's a Thai compromise.

The Thai judicial system,police, and military are national disgraces. Educated legal brains in Thailand know it: so does half the world - the half that knows where Thailand is.

The Supreme Court judgement is a victory. But unfortunately Andy Hall will lose the war. And by that I do not mean he will necessarily lose all his other cases. 

I mean that these cases are built to wear him down, deprive him of all his cash and trash him emotionally and physically. And he'll never get compensation for all that - and for that we all have to salute his courage.

As a victim of so called defamation SLAPP * cases I know what Andy has been going through. And we both know what Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo are going through after being convicted in the face of flagrantly flawed evidence in the Koh Tao murder trial. 

We also know what Annie Hansen and Jack Hansen-Birtel are going throught trying to take on the son of a Chinese multi-millionaire in the Thai courts.

This is not just Natural Fruit he is up against. It is a country defending itself against the systematic abuse of migrants which it pretends does not exist.


For his sheer resilience Andy Hall commands all our support. Here follows the statement from Finnwatch:


Thailand's Supreme Court today rejected the Attorney General and Natural Fruit Co Ltd.'s appeal in a criminal defamation case against Finnwatch researcher Andy Hall. The charges in this case related to an interview Hall gave to Al-Jazeera in Myanmar in April 2013 concerning his earlier criminal prosecution by Natural Fruit Company Ltd. This particular case had already been dismissed twice by courts of both first and second instance (Prakanong/Appeals Court) on the grounds of flawed unlawful interrogation processes during police investigation of the case and given the allegedly defamatory act was committed in Myanmar.
In a statement issued today following the ruling, Hall said:
 'Following dismissal of the case, I have no choice but to now launch counter litigation against Natural Fruit, the Prosecutor, Police and the Attorney General for unlawful prosecution and for perjury. I do so with deep regret and not at all in anger or through any desire for personal retribution. It is necessary to launch these counter prosecutions simply because I must defend myself fully against judicial harassment by Natural Fruit that shows no signs of abating.'

'The Supreme Court's ruling is of course a huge relief but it does not vindicate Hall's earlier conviction and suspended prison sentence in a case also brought by Natural Fruit less than two months ago. 
However, the campaign of judicial harassment that has been waged against Andy Hall for almost four years now has already sadly been successful. As many have feared, this campaign has also had a negative impact far beyond the case of Andy himself. We have heard from a number of migrant workers and activists how they are now deeply afraid to speak out on abuse workers face from Thai employers after Andy Hall's recent conviction,' said Sonja Vartiala, Executive Director of Finnwatch. 
'A real stain has been placed on Thailand's reputation, in particular as an acceptable country to do business in. Companies which source from Thailand need to think really hard whether they can be confident that they can adequately monitor their supply chains when the voices of workers and those who defend them are being chillingly silenced,' she added. 
Less than two months ago on September 20th 2016, the Bangkok South Criminal Court found Andy Hall guilty in the other criminal case on charges of criminal defamation by publication and Computer Crimes brought by Natural Fruit against him. 
He was subsequently sentenced to four years' imprisonment, reduced by one year and suspended by two years and ordered to pay a fine of 200, 000 baht reduced to 150,000 baht. Once the fine was paid to the Court by Thai Union Group, the Thai Tuna Industry Association and Finnwatch, Andy Hall was released from temporary detention, his passport returned and restrictions on his freedom of movement removed. 
The surprise guilty verdict drewstern criticism from around the world including from the UN, the ILO, the European Parliament and European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom. 
Andy Hall and his legal team are currently preparing to appeal the Bangkok South Criminal Court conviction on grounds of both fact and law but have yet to receive a written copy of the verdict to be used as the basis of the appeal. The Supreme Court ruling in this Aljazeera interview case on 3rd November will have no impact on the suspended prison sentence Hall was given on 20th September. 
Two civil defamation claims for damages of 400 million baht brought by Natural Fruit Company Ltd against Andy Hall are still pending resolution of the two criminal cases. Natural Fruit filed all four cases against Hall following publication of the Finnwatch report Cheap Has a High Price in January 2013. Hall coordinated field research and conducted migrant worker interviews for the report which outlined migrant worker interviewee allegations of serious labour rights violations at the company's pineapple processing plant.
 'Following dismissal of the case, I have no choice but to now launch counter litigation against Natural Fruit, the Prosecutor, Police and the Attorney General for unlawful prosecution and for perjury. I do so with deep regret and not at all in anger or through any desire for personal retribution. It is necessary to launch these counter prosecutions simply because I must defend myself fully against judicial harassment by Natural Fruit that shows no signs of abating.'

SLAPP CASES (from Wikipedia)

 A strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) is a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.Such lawsuits have been made illegal in many jurisdictions on the grounds that they impede freedom of speech.

The typical SLAPP plaintiff does not normally expect to win the lawsuit. The plaintiff's goals are accomplished if the defendant succumbs to fear, intimidation, mounting legal costs or simple exhaustion and abandons the criticism. In some cases, repeated frivolous litigation against a defendant may raise the cost of directors and officers liability insurance for that party, interfering with an organization's ability to operate. A SLAPP may also intimidate others from participating in the debate. 


Multiple SLAPP cases were brought against me by fake lawyers Drew Walter Noyes, from Wilmington, North Carolina, and Brian Goudie, from Falkirk, Scotland, who posed in Thailand as lawyers to cheat tourists and expats.

Warrants of arrest have been issued against both after they were found guilty of criminal offences. In the case of Noyes he was jailed for two years for extortion and Brian Goudie who was jailed for three years for fraud and embezzlement.  


Despite further outstanding charges against them, in Goudie's case for fraud, and revenge porn related defamation cases, and in Noyes case a return suit for libel, both were given bail by the Pattaya Court and have not been seen since. The court is of course a million baht richer.




*Dodgy Pattaya businessmen


James Lumsden
In the case of the dodgy Pattaya businessmen I published a story in the UK media about Gordon May and James Lumsden and the substance of these stories was also in two reports I made for the Bangkok Post. James Lumsden sued in Thailand against claims they he had defrauded two investors out of some £500,000. 

One of the investors Iain Macondald, the son of a former Provost of Inverness, died in a fire on the premises of the Ambiance Hotel in Pattaya which he had bought a half share of, and the second was arrested for narcotics. 


Kevin Quill
A non drug user some 98 yaa bills were found in a consignment of 200 carts of cigarettes the businessmen Kevin Quill had arranged for him to take to the UK. I had to find my own lawyers. I was convicted at the lower court. Both cases were dismissed at the Appeal Court on the grounds I was a journalist carrying out work in the public interest but at the Appeal Court I was found guilty in one case and acquitted in the second case.

The judges ruled that as I had stated that Iain Macdonald, 29, had made an illegal
Iain Macdondald - blue shirt
will a month before his death leading all his Thai investments to the gay boyfriend of Gordon May, and that May and Lumsden were the real beneficiaries, as they took over all his properties and refused to give them to his next of kin, I was suggesting James Lumsden may have been party to a murder.

In fact I never stated as such, though I readily admit people could come to that conclusion.

An Assistant Commissioner of the Thai police General Noppodal Somboonsup had apologised to the British Embassy admitting having reviewed the evidence that he believed Quill had been 'framed'.

I'm still waiting for my bail monies and fines to be returned.
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ANDY HALL QUITS THAILAND

November 7, 2016, 10:48 am
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STATEMENT ISSUED FROM BANGKOK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.

'So long human rights repressors!'

British migrant workers activist Andy Hall tonight issued a statement saying he was leaving Thailand with no planned return date.

In a statement issued from Suvarnabhumi International airport, Hall, who was the subject of several libel cases due to his exposure of alleged breaches of rights of Burmese workers in Thailand, cited the deterioration in conditions for human rights workers in the country.

He is unlikely to return until “people like myself (can) work genuinely and most productively, free from threats and intimidation and without endless prosecutions that prevent our work from proceeding effectively.”

He joins many foreign journalists and Thai democracy supporters who have already left.

Here follows his statement in which he scarcely disguises he feelings in a judgment made against him.

“It was indeed a welcome development that the Supreme Court of Thailand issued its judgment on 3rd November 2016 at Prakanong Court dismissing, after almost 4 years at a final stage of appeal, a criminal defamation case against me. 
In this case I was prosecuted as a researcher and migrant activist for criminal defamation by Thailand's Attorney General and Public Prosecutor, as joint plaintiffs with Natural Fruit Company Ltd. 
This case related to an interview I gave to Aljazeera in Yangon in 2013 in which I explained. about research I conducted on alleged migrant worker rights abuses in Thailand's food processing industry and my experience of the response by Natural Fruit Company Ltd. in criminally prosecuting me.  
As an individual and as an international affairs advisor to the Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN) and the State Enterprise Worker Relations Confederation (SERC), I have been dedicated to working as a human rights defender and activist for over 11 years. 
My goal has always been to improve living and working conditions of millions of exploited migrant workers in Thailand and ensure these workers access fully labour rights and other rights they are entitled under Thai law. However, in the end, the situation has not worked out as I planned or hoped. 


This work has entailed many personal challenges. I have encountered insurmountable challenges with some companies and establishments.  

For instance, on 20th September 2016 the Bangkok South Criminal Court issued its judgment convicting me for criminal defamation and computer crimes. 
This conviction resulted from a case prosecuted against me in relation to the publication of a report by Finnwatch on the situation of migrant worker rights violations in Thailand's pineapple industry. 
I was a researcher providing raw data for this report and I did not analyse this data, write the report or publish it. However, I was sentenced as defendant in this case to 4 years’ imprisonment and a 200, 000 baht fine. As I was seen to have given beneficial evidence at my trial in a case which also lasted for almost 4 years, I was given a 25% reduction in sentence to 3 years’ imprisonment and a 150, 000 baht fine. 
The court suspended my imprisonment sentence for 2 years on the basis that I was an activist working for public benefit. I shall appeal against this conviction once my lawyers receive the judgment. 
 
In addition to these personal cases, recently it has been necessary for me to work with MWRN to support a case where migrant workers by necessity had to prosecute a chicken farm owner in Lopburi Province providing poultry to Betagro for export overseas. 
This case is now resulting in additional criminal prosecutions and threats of even more extensive litigation in Thailand's Courts of Justice. 
When taken together, this ongoing, costly and extensive litigation on migrant labour issues creates challenges that critically prevent in many ways enhancement of migrant worker rights in Thailand.  

Of course, in some situations the Thai government cooperates and assists to promote enhancement of migrant worker rights. I accept that in some circumstances and in certain issues or cases, the situation of migrant workers in Thailand has significantly improved. Credit should be given for this visible improvement. 
This genuine improvement has only occurred however when civil society and the Thai trade union movement has worked together in collaboration and harmony with more progressive employers, industries and establishments as well as with the Thai Government and overseas buyers.  
Importantly on a personal level however, currently the situation in defending migrant worker rights for me and others who act as human rights defenders in similar situations has rapidly deteriorated in Thailand with significantly increased risks and aggressiveness evident. 
As a result, I want to ensure time for existing tense situations of conflict to reduce as well as provide time and space for the many parties to these existing disputes to fully understand the importance of migrant worker rights and the necessity for human rights defenders like myself. to have their work increasingly promoted and protected. 
Only if such a positive situation is developed can people like myself work genuinely and most productively, free from threats and intimidation and without endless prosecutions that prevent our work from proceeding effectively.  
I have discussed carefully and over a period of time with my colleagues and my legal team a plan to leave Thailand without specifying a return date given the increasingly negative developments highlighted above. 
I have now finally decided to leave Thailand today as planned, and with confidence that for now, this is the right decision for me and for MWRN. 
Concerning counter prosecutions against certain individuals and companies in relation to ongoing judicial harassment against me, I have assigned all authority to act on my behalf in these matters and during my absence from Thailand to my Head Lawyer. Any remaining work that I am responsible for has been assigned to MWRN's team. “

Andy Hall 
11/07/2016 
Survanabumi Airport

COMMENT: 

Bon voyage, Andy, and thank you for your tenacity. Every time the authorities, and by that I mean the authorities, not just the Thai manufacturers abusing migrant labour, took you to court, it raised the profile, of human rights abuses in the country, worldwide.  Of course promises will be made, but never kept while those in power profit. I guess you realised that.

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SEX TOURIST ACQUITTED OVER ROW WITH THAI 'SHORT TIME' GIRLS

November 8, 2016, 11:14 am
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PLUS 'WHO'S ON THE RUN?'

A South African businessman who was jailed for two weeks in Thailand and forbidden to leave the country for a year after demanding a refund from two prostitutes who did not provide any sex services has been acquitted by a court in the resort of Pattaya.

Mark Berchowitz, who publishes The Green Gazette, the government gazette of South Africa had faced trumped up services of robbery by night and being in Thailand illegally.

In fact, he had a valid visa for Thailand. The charge of robbery by night, a serious offence under Thailand law, related to holding on the women’s ID cards, which had been handed in to security at his apartment block, with the intention of making a complaint to police the following day.

He duly made the complaint and was arrested.

Berchowitz may have been somewhat naïve in not expecting some sort of retribution from the women or Thai police, or that ‘sex tourists’ had rights. 

But there was no evidence that he intended to permanently deprive the owners of their possessions.
Once banged up on the false charges he was then shaken down for some 250,000 Thai baht bail money by a lawyer’s assistant – more than double the amount demanded by the court. *

Instead of the matter being dealt with quickly in the ‘Tourist Court’, which had been trumpeted by the authorities to deal with such cases, it case went into Pattaya’s laborious legal system, and continued to be delayed.

This may have been because the prosecution witnesses in the ‘robbery’ case had long since disappeared – and his passport were clear evidence that the visa charge was trumped up.

Berchowitz had picked up two prostitutes for 1000 baht each which he paid to the Lisa Coyote Bar in Pattaya’s Second Road in June last year. 

Lisa Coyote
Technically the customer is merely paying for the woman’s company but there is an understanding that the woman will provide sex services. And indeed, he said he had come to an agreement for one woman to stay for a short time sex at 1,200 baht (US$34.30) and the second to stay all night for 2,500 baht (US$70.50). 
An agreement was further made, he said, that he would pay 1,200 up front.
But at his apartment the women demanded he pay all the cash up front.
“I am not concerned about making this public. I am a single man. And I had taken other woman home for enjoyable evenings, even on the occasion when no sex was involved. “But these women were different. Their friendly attitude changed to being very pushy and I had previously agreed only to pay 1,200 baht up front. Their attitude made me think I just did not want to spend any more time with them,” he said.“I did not want to get into any further argument so I suggested we all return to the bar together so I could get a refund, but they refused. “On the way out I took their ID cards as from the security guard with the intention the following morning of taking the matter to police to mediate. And that’s what I did.  There had been a previous occasion in which police had assisted me.”
Mr. Berchowitz is awaiting the return of his bail. As a result of the ordeal and not being able to work his business had slumped 25 per cent, he said.

*The overcharge has since been repaid after he hired a different lawyer.

COMMENT:Don’t try this at home. The Pattaya Police and courts are money generating machines. Legal con men abound with the tacit approval of police who are in on the act. It’s one thing to stand on principal, another thing to stand on principal in Thailand. 

There is no such thing as case law in Thailand and though you may have support from a certain sector of society this is never going to be a cause celebre and it’s probably best to cut your losses. 

ON THE RUN

Jacob Jade Davies, an Australian national has failed, as expected, to turn up in Pattaya court after paying some 800,000 (AUS$30,573) bail on charges of entering Thailand illegally, and drugs possession. 

Davies had already been convicted of drugs possession and been given a15 month prison sentence suspended for two years.  

His bail was put up by David Hanks,68, the Australian Scot former boss of Masquerades brothel in Keysborough, Victoria. 

Davies’ legal advisor was Brian Goudie, from Falkirk, who is appealing a three-year prison sentence for fraud and embezzlement – cheating a 78-year old American woman out of US$250,000 plus while posing as a lawyer. 

Hanks, dirt cheap lawyer, and Goudie

Hanks, Goudie, and Davies had all given their address as the Jaggie Thistle, now the Key Bar in the Jomtien Complex, Pattaya.  

Key Bar

Goudie is also on the run having failed to turn up and pay bail on charges relating to fraud and revenge porn. He is also subject to a bankruptcy order.  Prior to arriving in Thailand under the name Brian Goldie he had been jailed in Australia for six years for theft. He is currently also on bail on charges of fraud bought by three foreigners he represented in a condo deal.

Goudie had acquired the ‘Jaggie Thistle’ from former Ulster drugs trafficker Jimmy ‘Doc’ Halliday by getting him to sign over a Power of Attorney by pressing his thumb on the form on his death bed in the Bangkok Pattaya hospital. Halliday was had been temporarily released from Nong Plalai jail and was being treated for the flesh-eating disease necrotising fasciitis.

Goudie is a remarkable operator and describes himself as, thorough, vile, evil, sneaky and ruthless.

A Goudie SMS
He has even terrified Thailand’s Foreign Foreign Correspondents Club, who were scared to run a film showing his activities – though he earned a programme to himself on the series TV series ‘Serial Swindlers’.

All human life is here.

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WATCH OUT FOR UBER FRAUD – INVESTOR ALERT

November 15, 2016, 11:54 am
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BOOZE, BIRDS AND 'LOADSAMONEY' UBER ALLES

Investors particularly in South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand need to be careful of a current boiler room fraud operating from ‘rooms’ in Manila, Cebu, and Bangkok.

Two fake companies are actively involved and have websites pretending to be in New York and Portland, Oregon. 

Capital Trust Management claims to be operating out of West 33rd Street, New York, but you won’t find their telephone salesmen there – but much closer to a palm tree or two. 


They are currently hawking Uber – the ride home people – but the only people taken for a ride will be those transferring money.

The government of Thailand and the Philippines have allowed these boiler rooms to flourish for nearly 20 years and they don’t do it for nothing.

My sources say they have been successful in pulling in punters from Australia and New Zealand.

Investors should also beware of a company calling itself Baker Bradley . This so called Oregon based company has offices in Makati and Cebu who are doing the same thing and have also been pulling in cash from Australia.



They are connected to Bangkok and were among the original scammers who operated there around 2000 shortly before the raids on the Brinton Group.

The Briton Group raids orchestrated by the Australian Federal police was an abject failure.  The bosses were arrested but released, then later fined for reaching Thai SEC regulations, and allowed to carry on again.  

The loaders were merely deported and many came back on the next plane and were paid for the inconvenience. No authorities touched the fraud money which was in banks in Hong Kong.

Since those days’ boiler room boys have been heavily investing their profits in Thailand’s sex industry, with one ‘Hong Kong Paul’ holding the master lease on Nana Plaza, which he bills as the world largest sex entertainment area.  

Paris
Currently behind Baker Bradley are Paris Batra, who is not far away from such characters as Alex Pagan and Tony Dunga - 'Wonga Dunga'. 

All are Bangkok British wide-boys.  Paris Batra used to own the ‘Bedsupper Club’ in Bangkok. 

Be careful out there. If it’s too good to be true. It is too good to be true. You’ll only be paying towards someone’s supply of San Miguel, and numerous hostesses and yellow Ferrari.

Uber of course have not issued any share offerings

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WILL THE BBC'S CORRESPONDENT BE IN COURT UNTIL RETIREMENT?

November 22, 2016, 12:25 pm
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The BBC’s Jonathan Head, who is being sued for what a lot more foreign correspondents in Thailand should have been doing for years, is finding out just what it means to get involved in Thailand’s controversial legal system.


Jonathan confronts lawyer in Phuket.

Jonathan, who took up the cases of Briton’s Ian Rance and Irishman Colin Vard, the latter which was first investigated on this site, is being sued by a lawyer in Phuket who forged his client’s signature on a house ownership document.


In that case the lawyer was Pratuan Thanarak, who forged a signature as a result of which Briton Ian Rance lost millions – not least his home.  

I think we can forget about using terms such as ‘alleged’ here, normally used when a case has not gone through the process of law. Because, when it touches such issues as Thai loss of face, judges in Thailand tend to throw away the books.

Lawyer Pratuan Thanarak is suing Jonathan for criminal libel under the Computer Crime Act the penalty for which can be seven years in jail. That won’t happen. The strategy by the plaintiffs in these actions is to continue to wear down the defendants until they apologise and cough up to prevent prohibitive losses.

Already this case has been delayed causing lawyers to make a wasted journey to Phuket. Now judges must decide whether to formally accept the case or not. Failure to do so would cause more loss of face to the Phuket lawyer in a Phuket court.

Now let me see this case was first in the court in February. It is next due in court next month. That’s ten months gone and it has not yet reached the trial process.

If the case is accepted Jonathan must pay bail and may also have to seek the permission of the court every time he is sent out of the country. If the court does not give him special dispensation to carry out his work, his usefulness as the BBCs south east Asia correspondent will be rather limited.

The last I heard was that lawyers were trying to make deals as the case went to arbitration.  Rance I  understand was entrenched. He did not want to any face saving deals. No deals were made.

So if this case goes to trial, and then to appeal, and then to the Supreme Court, could Jonathan possibly be looking at the same 15 years I waited after writing about crooks in Pattaya. (I won one case and lost one case. A typical Thai result).

So far, the BBC is keeping shtum. “The BBC stands by the high standards of its journalism. As this is now a legal matter, there will be no further comment.”  

And the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, of which he is now the immediate past President, will probably also keep its head down as they have done is other cases, restricting themselves to statements of concern. 



Meanwhile next month Colin Vard, who had seven properties stolen from under him in an identical conspiracy of lawyers and local officials in Phuket, faces three cases of criminal libel under the computer crime act. His signature was forged not once but 12 times. His lawyer worked for the law firm C.K. Chonlasit.



Mind you his daughter the feisty Jessie Vard, now 17, is something of a star in Thailand with some 650,000 plus fans on her Facebook site ‘Justice for Jessie’. She speaks and writes fluent Thai and went for a Ministry of Justice official when she heard him call her father a ‘lying, cheating, farang’ at a time when the Thai authorities were smiling and pretending to support his case.


Jessie Vard
Can the BBC get to grips with this? Will Victoria Derbyshire on whose BBC programme the item aired do a follow-up?  

Or will Jonathan merely get the reply ‘You’re in a corrupt country what else do you expect?’ which I so often heard as I publicly took down one crook or another as the Thai police were part of the problem.

A knock-on effect of the Jessie Vard webpage is that a lot of properties in Phuket are not selling and people are now blaming the Vard and Rance cases for the drop in interest in this ‘paradise island’ but which the Captain of one of the first British sailing vessels calling there described as an island of ‘dacoits’.

Buying a property in Phuket anyone? 

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THAI MILITARY ‘CAN’T HANDLE’ THE TRUTH

July 27, 2016, 2:36 am
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A FEW GOOD WOMEN


Naritsarawan Kaewnopparat
Thailand’s military is not traditionally good at handling the truth but then it does not need to be. 

The military were never punished for the Tak Bai massacre* or for the massacre at Krue Se Mosque*. The army of course is used more against the people rather than an enemy.

However, in the case of Private Wichian Puaksom, 26, the army paid out some US$200,000 compensation. Was that an admittance of serious crimes? Apparently not.

An officer and nine other soldiers were involved in the following brutal treatment of him in 2011.

They forced him:


“to strip Wichian down to his underwear and drag him over a rough concrete surface before repeatedly kicking and beating him for several hours. Soldiers then put salt in Wichian’s wounds to increase the pain. They wrapped his body with white cloth, bound his hands, read him funeral rites, and forced him to sit on ice. They then beat Wichian with bamboo rods, kicked him, and stomped on his chest and his head.”

Despite his death from his injuries four days later, on June 5 Sub-lieutenant Om and the other nine soldiers only received military disciplinary punishment of 30 or fewer days in detention, but were never charged for murder or other serious offences. 

There goes the Thai army again, falsely defending its honour.

Was Private Wichian the subject of a ‘Code Red’? This whole scenario is uncannily similar to the plot of the Hollywood film a ‘Few Good Men’ with Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore and Tom Cruise.



(above - don't expect this sort of exchange in a Thai court)

Wichian was attacked allegedly for ‘fleeing military training’. In the film ‘A Few Good Men’ Private William Santiago is the subject of an unofficial order ‘A Code Red’ to beat him into being a better US Marine.

In Thailand of course truth is of course stranger than fiction and in this case the officer in charge of the unit is not in the dock like Jack Nicholson playing the Marine Colonel. 

Instead Wichian’s courageous niece faces jail under Thailand’s Computer Crime Act, for having the balls to complain that the punishment was not sufficient.


So now we have the spectacle of seeing an Army Captain, the Commanding Officer of Wichian’s unit in the 151st Battalion of the 3rd Infantry Division going into the witness box to prosecute Naritsarawan Kaewnopparat for comments she made on her Facebook page.

Correction, well we won’t be able to see anything as Thailand’s laws prevent contemporaneous court reporting and even forbid journalists to take notes. We’ll just get the judgement.

Yes, you cannot make this up!


Links:

*The Tak Bai Massacre

*Kru’ Se Mosque

The following is a statement today issued by Human Rights Watch:

Thailand: Torture Victim’s Outspoken Niece Arrested
End Reprisals Against Families Seeking Justice

(New York, July 27, 2016) – Thai authorities should drop trumped-up criminal proceedings against a woman who has sought justice for her army conscript uncle, who was tortured to death by soldiers in 2011, Human Rights Watch said today. Naritsarawan Kaewnopparat, 25, faces up to five years in prison and a 100,000 baht (US$2,900) fine if found guilty of defamation and publicizing false information online under the Computer Crimes Act.

On the morning of July 26, 2016, police arrested Naritsarawan at her office at the Ministry of Human Security and Social Development in Bangkok. She was taken to the Muang Narathiwat police station and questioned about her Facebook page. The page details the case of her uncle, Pvt. Wichian Puaksom, 26, whom soldiers tortured to death at a military camp in Narathiwat province, and demands that those responsible be brought to justice. On July 27, the police released Naritsarawan on bail. The complaint against Naritsarawan was brought by an army captain who had been commanding officer of the unit found responsible for Wichian’s death.

“The Thai police’s efforts to intimidate and retaliate against the outspoken relative of a victim of rights abuse is no less than an endorsement of torture,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should immediately direct the police to drop the criminal cases against Naritsarawan and seek the prosecution of those responsible for her uncle’s death.”

An internal investigation by the 4th Army Region, responsible for Thailand’s southern provinces, found that soldiers severely tortured Private Wichian of the 151st Battalion of the 3rd Infantry Division on June 1, 2011. The report said that Sub. Lt. Om Malaihom, who had accused Wichian of fleeing military training, ordered at least nine soldiers to strip Wichian down to his underwear and drag him over a rough concrete surface before repeatedly kicking and beating him for several hours. Soldiers then put salt in Wichian’s wounds to increase the pain. They wrapped his body with white cloth, bound his hands, read him funeral rites, and forced him to sit on ice. They then beat Wichian with bamboo rods, kicked him, and stomped on his chest and his head. Wichian died from his injuries four days later, on June 5. Sub-lieutenant Om and the other nine soldiers received military disciplinary punishment of 30 or fewer days in detention, but were never charged for murder or other serious offences.



Private Wichian’s family sued the Ministry of Defense, the army, and the Prime Minister’s Office for malfeasance and was provided 7,000,000 baht (US$200,000) compensation in February 2014. In July 2015, the Office for Public Sector Anti-Corruption found Om and nine other soldiers guilty of malfeasance under article 157 of the penal code and article 30 of the military penal code.

In May 2016, Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-ocha promised to make torture a criminal offense under Thai law and to fulfill Thailand’s obligations under the United Nations Convention against Torture. Under the convention, the Thai government is obligated to investigate and prosecute acts of torture and other ill-treatment committed by government officials. However, the Thai government has yet to prosecute successfully any security personnel for abuses. Thai authorities have also frequently retaliated against those reporting alleged human rights violations by filing lawsuits accusing critics of making false statements with the intent of damaging the officials’ reputation.

“It has always been risky to speak up on behalf of victims of military abuses in Thailand,” Adams said. “Now the government is using the full weight of its legal system against those urging justice.”

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THE DEATH OF A PROFESSOR IN THAILAND - CASE CLOSED. NO IT ISN'T!

November 28, 2016, 2:02 am
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INQUIRY STUMBLES OVER MULTIPLE WOUNDS OF PROFESSOR WHO POLICE SAID DIED OF 'UNDERLYING DISEASE'

The Royal Thai police force, which appears to have passed off yet another possible murder of a foreigner with their familiar finding of ‘stopped breathing, heart stopped beating’ and ‘no foul play suspected’, now have their work cut out trying to recover their position in the royal resort town of Hua Hin.


For no scenes of crime work was undertaken at the hotel in Hua Hin, where the body of James Hughes, an academic at the Webster University, Cha-am campus, was found in September.  

And there is no longer a body. It was cremated in a 15-minute ceremony by the university which had threatened police action against anybody who described or showed pictures of the state in which the body was in. Most observers concluded it was the subject of a violent beating.

Today the Bangkok Post carried an extensive report covering the suspicions of family, friends and colleagues as to how James Hughes, a popular academic, died.  




This followed a circular to prominent journalists by the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand of a letter from a long-term friend of Hughes’ in the United States – Jerry Weinberger.

This helped to right the apple cart which had been upset earlier in the week when the Bangkok Post published a story, having spoken to case officer Police Lt. Sanpawut, saying the  case had been closed. Nothing suspicious. The first report also stated that, although the Professor had injuries they were likely to have been self-inflicted while he was drunk. He must have died from an ‘underlying disease’.


link rto the withdrawn story
This was quite a conclusion for a low-ranking policeman to make. But then the local Hua Hin doctor had concurred giving the ‘heart stopped, breathing stopped’ judgement or, as the doctor put it, ‘failed respiration and blood circulation’.

James Hughes’ injuries were so wide ranging that it is hard to see how they came to this conclusion.




He had contusion wounds to his forehead, left and right hips, right thigh to calf, left knee, tear and avulsion wounds on his forehead and nasal bridge, contusion wounds on both his eye sockets and nasal bridge, and other contusion wounds on his shin, back and upper right arm, and abrasions and scabs on his elbows, according to an autopsy carried out in the Bangkok Police hospital. 

That was rather awkward.



If such wounds occurred in his room 412 at the Poungpen Villa Hotel right in the centre of Hua Hin or as the Bangkok Post later noted a block and a half away from the savage attack on a British family during the Songkran holiday in April. That assault, captured by overhead security cameras and posted on social media, sparked outrage... then would not someone have heard?

And if the attack had been administered before he returned would not someone have seen?


“He might have been drunk and fallen down," Pol. Lt. Sanpawut told the Post. "We did not extend the investigation further because there is no reason to suspect this is a homicide.” 


But, in any case, that was not the cause of death, he said.


 ‘It must have been some underlying disease’. What underlying disease? There are none in the autopsy."

At this stage from the police denial there is no reason to suspect it is NOT a homicide.

And if the Lieutenant was speculating, then a more measured attempt at speculation would be that James Hughes was a victim of a Hua Hin pack attack!  

Either Mr Hughes was hit by the same assailant multiple times from different directions, or he was hit multiple times by several assailants from different directions, or his he hit himself multiple times from different directions or fell off a mountain.

At least that is what a doctor said to me when I showed him the report, but I should add he was not a forensic pathologist nor is that how a forensic pathologist would have put it.

And there you have it; another Thai police statement plucked from the air and fed to the public as if it should be given credence. 

The problem is that after a series haphazard investigations of the murders of foreigners the credibility of the Thai police is very low.

It is hard to find someone on the numerous English language forums in Thailand who is not cynical at the police response.

No attempt has been made to explain the wounds other than they were self inflicted by James Hughes falling down repeatedly.

They have not learned from easily challenged statements issued during the Kirsty Jones murder enquiry in Chiang Mai, the Leo del Pinto murder in Pai, or the murders of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller on Koh Tao.

All that the remains of the original Bangkok Post is a link to the heading: ‘Police close professor's death inquiry’.

On the day of publication, a furious David Hughes, James' brother, had been angrily emailing from New York demanding what the Post was up to. 

The Bangkok Post as a rule does not give much prominence to foreign deaths in Thailand only when they are unavoidable and the story is hitting the foreign press. The newspaper sees itself as a window into Thailand. Sometimes the glass is frosted. 

Luckily however the newspaper does have an excellent and feisty education correspondent in Nanchanok Wongsamuth, who recently did an investigation into corruption in Universities, and this week she took up the cudgels on behalf of the family in today’s Spectrum.


Police Colonel Sittichai
But, while Lt Sanpawut appears to have closed the case and the Post has taken his response as official, his boss Lt. Colonel ‘Pui’ Sittichai Srisophajaroenrat,  the new Hua Hin Superintendent, assured me that the case is not dead. There remain serious concerns, and statements issued by the Lieutenant were not referred to him first.

Further since last Tuesday there have been meetings to discuss the case. The medical officer has been called in and questioned and so will others be and deadlines have been set up. These statements I should say were made two days before the Bangkok Post went to press.

This confusion may of course be because this is the annual time for the change-over of senior police officers and although he has been in Hua Hin Since September he has not yet actually moved into his office.

Lt. Col Sittichai appears to be generally concerned at the anomalies. So, we may have to wait and see. But the Colonel still has to face the facts that there is no longer a body, and no scenes of crime report.

Among the foreign community in Hua Hin there is a general feeling that police play down all cases concerning foreigners because it is as ‘royal town’ and home to ‘Far from Worries’ the summer palace of the Thai King.

But the police in the town have been accused of cover-ups before, notably in the case of Briton Paul Ayling who was attacked in November 11th driving his step-through motorbike home with his wife and sun. He was ambushed and clubbed and his two assailants left the murder weapon in the road before driving off. 



Police had the murder weapons and statements implicating two Thai suspects employed by a Thai businessman with whom Ayling was in dispute. No action was taken. No scene of crime was closed off. Ayling was medically evacuated back to Britain where he died while still in a coma.

The murder weapon was kept in a corner in Hua Hin station for a while but there was no crime scene or forensic investigation – and no murder enquiry. 



Similarly, it was Hua Hin police who armed former Category AA prisoner, armed robber Jason Coghlan, and brother of Britain’s ‘Teflon Don’ Aran Coghlan with an automatic hand gun, which he used to intimidated residents of Dutch businessman Dingemann ‘Dinkie’ Hendrikse into paying their dues on his ‘paradise in the sun’ property estates.

There remains no explanation as to why Webster University’s Cha-am campus tried to cover up the circumstances of James Hughes’ death, James Hughes taught media writing there and had himself written for notable publications including the ‘New Yorker’.

The University forced one member of staff to sign a ‘cease or desist’ order guaranteeing that he would not show photographs of Dr. Hughes after his death, or talk about the matter, on pain of being reported to police!  That sounds very much like the organiser should be interviewed on suspicion of attempting to cover-up a crime.

But the Webster University in Thailand has a chequered reputation as a quick internet search will show. I myself have exposed one of the administration there of having phony degrees.  The man in question Dr. Roy Krishnan, an Indian-Malay, was formerly a contributor to the Bangkok Post’s education pages.

As for the Unites States Embassy ‘Americans Citizens Service it appears their staff members still need to step up to the plate, according to David Hughes in New York.  

If nothing else, they do however seem to be preparing the stockade. 

One of their earlier messages to Jerrry Weinberger stated: “Please note the Embassy is involved in this case and that Thai newspapers are often sensationalistic, inaccurate and full of rumour.”

Keeping their heads below the parapet, perhaps?

Photos – James Hughes, Bangkok Post google search, Puang Pen Hotel, post mortem, Colonel Sittichai, Paul Ayling with wife and son from ‘Nothing under the sun’  Andrew Drummond, cease and desist letter from Webster University, Jason Coghlan.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/special-reports/1145469/what-happened-to-my-dead-brother-

http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2014/04/psst-wanna-degree-reinvent-yourself.html



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POLICE TO REPORT TO U.S. EMBASSY ON DEATH OF ACADEMIC IN HUA HIN

November 30, 2016, 1:10 pm
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IT'S NOT OVER UNTIL IT'S OVER!



Police in Hua Hin are to present the results of their findings into their investigation into the death of American academic James Hughes, 58, at a meeting at the United States Embassy in Bangkok this coming Friday.

The Hua Hin Superintendent Police Lt. Colonel Sittichai Srisophajaroenrat has again stressed that, despite press reports quoting a police lieutenant in Hua Hin, the enquiry had not been closed and work was continuing in the case.

The death of James Hughes became controversial because of the high number of injuries which had been inflicted on his body which was found in the Poung Pen Hotel in Hua Hin on September 6th.
The policeman was quoted in the ‘Bangkok Post’ as dying not from the wounds but from ‘underlying’ illness. 


However, no such illness was revealed in the post mortem.  The Bangkok Post withdrew its midweek report but published a special report in the Sunday ‘Spectrum’ indicating the family believed that a murder had been covered up.

And a story expressing serious misgiving was also published on this site but stating that the Colonel had indicated that the investigation was ongoing.

Further the administration at Webster University where Hughes lectured imposed a black out on discussion of his death threatening miscreants with police action.

The Hua Hin superintendent stressed again that the inquiry was not over – and not over until the full report had been placed on his desk.

The medical examiner has been called in to explain the cause of death which he gave as ‘failed respiration and blood circulation’ which is why everyone dies.





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TARGETING FOREIGN PRISONERS IN THAILAND

December 1, 2016, 1:12 pm
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FORMER GIRVAN ACADEMY BOYS WINS THAI PRISON JACKPOT

Former brothel owner David Hanks, former partner of extortionist Drew Noyes and con-man and fake lawyer Brian Goudie, has taken over as the front man to extort foreign prisoners in Pattaya jail.
Hanks

Both Noyes and Goudie have both been given jail sentence then bail to appeal them, Noyes for extortion for which he received a jail sentence of 2 years reduced on appeal to 18 months, and Goudie three years for posing as a lawyer to defraud a 78-year-old American woman out of US$300,000.

Barbara Fanelli Miller from Madison, Wisconsin, had handed over the cash to Goudie believing he was, as he claimed, a qualified British barrister and former office in the Royal Marines, who could represent her son, Ian, a teacher, who had been arrested on alleged child sexual abuse charges and was in Nong Plalai prison, Pattaya.
She did not know Goudie was a con man, for whom an arrest warrant had been issued for a fraud on the Royal Bank of Scotland, and who had been jailed in Australia for stealing some AUS£400,000 from a Perth mining company.

So, naturally ignoring the guarantee he gave to get her son home to the United States, he pocketed the cash including her son Gregory Miller's bail. 

Miller,45, subsequently died on his way to hospital* from prison where he had not received treatment for an ongoing heart condition.

Not surprising, and because he conned other clients and prisoners, even shopping them to authorities as their lawyer when convenient, Goudie does not have a good reputation in Nong Plalai the local prison in Pattaya.

So recently the man acting as the prisoners’ saviour has been fellow Scot David Hanks, from Girvan,Ayrshire, or Melbourne, Victoria,  depending on which passport he uses, who was last year acquitted by the Pattaya Court of racketeering.   

Goudie of course with outstanding warrants and friends of old lags chasing him, cannot be seen. But he still needs the cash to survive.


Hanks and Goudie - swindler Scots



Jaggie Thistle
So, David Hanks started up a new company giving the address as Goudie’s former ‘Jaggie Thistle’ bar in the Jomtien Complex, Pattaya.  

The ‘Jaggie Thistle’ had been acquired by Goudie from, of course, former Northern Ireland drugs trafficker Jimmy ‘Doc’ Halliday, who Goudie was representing in an assault case.

Halliday had been imprisoned and while in ‘Nong Plalai’ had contracted the flesh easting disease ‘necrotising fasciitis’.  Goudie promised to get him out of jail. And indeed, he did manage to get him to the Bangkok-Pattaya Hospital promising him full treatment.




But it would have been a massive disadvantage to Goudie to have Halliday out of hospital and a free man. 

Halliday, was not missed as he had dumped his family in Belfast leaving nothing for the Serious Organised Crime Agency to get under the Proceeds of Crime Act, He invested his ill-gotten gains in property in Pattaya.  

But the hospital was not paid a 1-million-baht bill presented to Goudie as his representative.  Goudie came away with Halliday’s thumb print on a Power of Attorney which gave Goudie rights over his two View Talay apartments and the ‘Blarney Stone’ pub, which duly re-opened under the name ‘Jaggie Thistle’. 

Goudie, who is on bail appealing the Miller fraud and embezzlement case, has had more warrants issued for fraud and revenge porn charges brought by his former Thai girlfriend (who he made Managing Director of Jimi International, the holding company for the Jaggie) and for defrauding two Brits and a German by pocketing a court awarded payment to them. He now technically runs the Gifts Me Key Company, which owns the premises of the Jaggie., now the Key Bar. All Goudie’s assets are subject to bankruptcy proceedings.

The new managing director is his current amour Jiraphan Mutsopha another former bar girl who is hoping for her loyalty reward. But now Hanks is also using the premises as his address and Pattaya’s new bail bondsman.


Unfortunately, Australian Jacob Jade Davies, 41, will not find Hanks anyway near this place. Davies was on bail appealing a drugs conviction when he was arrested for another drugs infringement possessing a small amount of ganja.  Normally that would be dealt with by a quick fine. But he was banged up straight away.

That was a very unfortunate spliff. As Hanks had put Davies’ 800,000 baht (AUS$30,365) bail money under his own name and applied for the cash back.   When Davies asked Hanks for it, he was told. ‘I’m sorry I had a heart attack. I had to give it to the hospital for my treatment.’



Hanks is not going to do on the short list of criminals that I could admire for their balls. From exploiting Thai women in his Masquerades Brothel, Melbourne, to petty insurance fraud, to backing up Drew Noyes in his attempted 7-million-baht extortion of the Thonglor Clinic Jomtien, and the attempted shake down of American Bill Monson (ABOVE) while posing as a lawyer with Falkirk born Goudie, his ventures into the underworld rank him in the lowest class of villain.


Mike Mitchell hold up picture of Hanks and identifies him as person who posed as a lawyer to attempt to defruad his friend
Bill Mondson - one time business partner of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.


But of course, if these Scots get banged up then they will have to cover each other’s backsides on the other side of the bars. 
The thought of course is hilarious. Unfortunately, this is Pattaya Provincial Court we are talking about, Girvan Sheriff Court.

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NO CCTV WORKING IN HUA HIN DEATH HOTEL

December 4, 2016, 2:09 pm
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'I AM UNABLE TO BE DIPLOMATIC OR PROFESSIONAL AT THIS POINT' BROTHER TELLS EMBASSY

JOIN ME IN MY NIGHTMARES!

Security cameras in the Thai hotel, where the battered body of ‘beloved’ American university professor James Archibald Hughes was found, were not functioning. The six CCTV units had not recorded anything for more than two years, hotel staff told police.


Further, members of staff could tell police little of the comings of the 58-year-old academic, who had been staying in the Puang Pen Hotel in the resort town of Hua Hin for a month, apart from volunteering the facts that he left about 9am each morning to buy stuff outside and around that time paying his bill daily.




James Hughes

Police say they remain puzzled about the demand by administrators at the Webster University to require several American members of the academic staff to sign a ‘cease and desist’ order forbidding them from showing pictures of his dead body or talking about the case. 




The contained threats by acting University director Keith Welsh was that if they did they would be reported to Hua Hin police or the U.S. Embassy. It is unclear what sort of threat that would be. But it is very possible breach of the order could be used as an excuse to terminate staff members.

In New York James Hughes’ brother, David, remains incensed at both lack of police investigation and lack of assistance by the US Embassy. The text of an angry complaint he made to Jane Vanelli of the United States Citizens Service is reproduced below.

Hua Hin police insist they will continue with the investigation and maintain they had no reason to be suspicious until the autopsy report came in.  The US Embassy does not comment on consular cases.




James Hughes had retained his apartment near the university but moved to live in Hua Hin town centre for a month.  What has not been answered are the following among many questions.

Who or what was he hiding from? Why did he have to cancel a planned trip to Chiang Mai with a colleague? What was he doing and where was he drinking for the last month and in particular on his last night?

He had been found with a comparatively high amount of alcohol in his blood but police made no mention has been found of alcohol or bottles or glasses in his room. 

Where was he spending his money? He had made several high withdrawals of cash, according to his brother, but there was little money (about 100 baht), and only one change of clothes in his room.

There appears to be a consensus that Hughes was worried about something. But there is no indication of suicide and that was ruled out as cause of death.

Further, comments appearing to support the university’s stance are being pushed out under pseudonyms on social media.  One such post on the web forum ThaiVisa.com clearly conveys the view there was nothing suspicious and suggests that, whatever happened, James Hughes had brought it on himself, and the matter should be now laid to rest. 

The poster reported that apart from a generous tribute before his cremation, there had also been a memorial service for James ‘on the day that he died’ which would have been before his brother knew about the death.


‘You've heard of suicide by cop?  How about suicide by bar patron?  or by street thugs?  or by taxi driver?'

The letter by 'Pitty Sing' was critical of the Bangkok Post article in the Spectrum section last seek ‘What happened to my dead brother?’ complaining that the Bangkok Post had not contacted the university for comment asking: ‘What kind of journalism is that?’

Not only had the Bangkok Post contacted the University but they had also prominently quoted the acting director Keith Welsh.




Hotel staff had opened up Hughes’ room on the top floor after he did not answer calls from the maid who wanted to clean his room. 

According to police, they said they used a spare key but had to break the security chain.  Police were not witness to the opening of the door.

Although the police strongly denied last week that the investigation had been closed, it is clear little further action was taken after his body was found in early September.  David Hughes says he extensive injuries should have merited an immediate investigation and police should not have waited for the post mortem results. 




Security cameras in That resorts can be a mixed blessing for Thailand. Recently in Hua Hin they recorded the savage pack attack on a British family who had been drinking in the town centre and the video went viral.

The attackers of a director of the privatised  H.M.Stationery Office in the UK were also not caught on camera. Millionaire Keith Burbage had been in dispute in Hua Hin over a house he had bought only to find he had been given another house on a different plot, which he did not want. He was attacked late at night in the centre of town. This picture was taken after the attack.  Mr. Burbage decided to retire in South America instead.
Nobody was ever charged with the attack.

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LEAVE HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS ALONE- THAI MILITARY GOVERNMENT ASKED

December 12, 2016, 1:27 am
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The current Thai military government claims it is on a drive to end corruption but seems unwilling to stem corruption within its own ranks. 


Now they're being asked or told to leave human rights defenders alone - and the Thai government claims it is improving human rights in the fishing industry and clamping down on human trafficking. 

Thailand has of course a history of coups led by people who claim they have taken over to end corruption but who then dip arms' length into the tills themselves.

But will other countries do something about it - like trade boycotting countries guilty of human rights breaches in say food production?

The world appears to be helpless in tackling leaders of countries where millions of citizens have had to flee persecution and even death.  

Briton Andy Hall who helped expose conditions for Burmese workers at National Fruit in Thailand was recently forced to leave the country, joining a long list of people including journalists exiled for telling the truth.

Today a global coalition of 110 organizations is calling on Prime Minister Prayut for reforms. Their letter published below may be little more than an ant bite to General Prayuth.  Perhaps its about time the Thai people stopped military generals amending the laws they create making them impossible to prosecute once they have relinquished power. Ah, wishful thinking. Here's the letter: 

Thailand’s use of criminal defamation laws and the Computer Crimes Act to prosecute human rights defenders violates its international obligations and increases risk for businesses that source goods from Thailand, said a coalition of 110 civil society groups, worker organizations, businesses and members of the European Parliament in an open letter sent to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha today to mark International Human Rights Day, that was commemorated on Dec 10th. The letter highlighted the September 2016 conviction of migrant rights defender Andy Hall as a dangerous precedent that would make it more difficult for migrant workers to ensure their rights are respected. Bangkok South Criminal Court found Hall guilty of criminal defamation and computer crimes on September 20, 2016 and handed down to him a 3 year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 150, 000 baht. Hall is appealing the verdict to the Appeals Court. The charges related to a report published by Finnwatch, a Finnish civil society organization, which outlined allegations of serious human rights violations at a pineapple processing facility owned by Natural Fruit Company Ltd (see www.andyjhall.wordpress.com for more information on the case). “Already we are seeing other abusive employers follow Natural Fruit’s lead and use criminal defamation and the Computer Crimes Act to bring cases against migrant workers who speak out when trapped in illegal working conditions, and against activists who work to protect these individuals,” said Abby McGill, campaigns director with the International Labor Rights Forum, a signatory to the letter. “These laws have a dangerous chilling effect and punish victims for seeking remedy, rather than those who commit crimes against them.” In November 2016, a chicken farm supplying to Thai poultry export giant Betagro initiated charges of criminal defamation against 14 migrant workers from Myanmar who allege they worked in extremely exploitative conditions on a Betagro chicken farm (see https://www.generosity.com/fundraising/support-abused-migrant-chicken-workers-legal-cases for more information on the case).

The company has since pursued a raft of criminal defamation and computer crimes charges against Hall also, as international affairs advisor to the Migrant Workers Rights Network, a migrant worker rights organisation that has supported the workers.  To prevent similar cases in the future, and increase confidence among international buyers that Thai goods are produced in acceptable working conditions, the letter signed by 110 global signatories urges the Royal Thai Government to:

1. repeal the provisions in the Penal Code criminalizing defamation;

2. amend the Computer Crime Act to bring it into compliance with international human rights law regarding freedom of expression;

3. Actively and effectively implement the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders; and 4. Ratify and implement ILO Core Labor Conventions, particularly No. 87 and No. 98. ”Thailand's laws that allow for criminal punishment and even imprisonment for defamation are in clear breach of Thailand's international human rights obligations,” said Sonja Vartiala, Executive Director of Finnwatch. “Instead of allowing companies to take human rights defenders and victims to court for alleged defamation, Thailand needs to thoroughly follow through on allegations of violations of migrant workers' rights.”

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