THAILAND: FACT call to stand up for free speech at Somyot’s lese majeste trial, starting on Wednesday April 18

Forwarded Press Release |Thailand | April 17, 2012

A Press Release from Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)

16-04-12

You’re invited! Come to support Somyot Pruksakasemsuk on these upcoming trial dates as trial observers.

As much may be learned from prosecution witnesses as the defence.

The next trial date will start from Wednesday, April 18, 2012. Morning sessions start at 9:30am, afternoon sessions at 1pm.

Here are the dates for court hearings:

Prosecution witness hearings:
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Thursday, April 19
Friday, April 20
Tuesday, April 24
Wednesday, April 25
Thursday, April 26

Defence witness hearings:
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Wednesday, May 2
Thursday, May 3
Friday, May 4

On March 12 the court denied Somyot’s EIGHTH petition for release on bail. The petition was actually submitted by the Rights and Liberties Protection Department under Ministry of Justice, the same ministry overseeing all justice matters, including the courts.

Somyot was arrested April 30, 2011 at the immigration checkpoint at Sa Kaew, while he was returning from Cambodia with a red-shirt tour group. He was charged with lèse majesté for two articles published in the Voice of Taksin magazine for which he was the editor.

He has been detained without bail ever since. From November 2011 to February 2012, he was taken to four provinces, including Sa Kaew, Phetchabun, Nakhon Sawan and Songkhla, where prosecution witnesses were registered when, in fact, all of them lived in Bangkok.

Somyot’s trial begins Wednesday, April 18, at Bangkok’s Criminal Court (San Aya), on Ratchadapisek Road opposite Soi 38, Lat Phrao MTR station.

WE URGE ALL READERS TO SPEND AT LEAST ONE MORNING OR AFTERNOON SESSION TO SUPPORT SOMYOT AND TO STAND UP FOR FREE SPEECH.

FREE SOMYOT!

SOMYOT IS ALL OF US!

For more information, please visit the following sites or contact wod.democracy@gmail.com

The Librarian of Bangkok Prison

IFJ- International Federation of Journalists- Calls for Immediate Release of Senior Journalist in Thailand

http://www.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-calls-for-immediate-release-of-senior-journalist-in-thailand

http://www.cleanclothes.org/

http://www.facebook.com/notes/free-somyot/somyots-new-trial-dates-april-may-2012/245980165488285

http://freesomyot.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/press-release-free-somyot-pruksakasemsuk/

http://www.humanrights.asia/news/forwarded-news/AHRC-FST-008-2012