“The guards are lazy, corrupt and self servicing and they beat people for no reason. I remember near the last day when we were eating they picked a poor Thai man and made him bend over and beat him with a heavy wooden pole across his back. When I asked some Iranian prisoners who spoke some Thai why they were beating him, they said because the prisoner had not finished laundering the guard’s clothes in time.”
- Harry Nicolaides quoted in “Harry’s back!”, Neos Kosmos, 22 February 2009.
1 response so far ↓
1 Joy // Feb 25, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Below is an article published on the BKK Post. I think New Mandalay should publicize more abt this case. Are the red-shirts now too eager to distance themselves from whoever they perceive as no longer useful to them or will undermine their movement?? Also, perhaps Giles in London can help publicize more abt this:
By: Bangkokpost.com
Published: 24/02/2009
After three failed bail attempts in seven months, lese majeste suspect Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul has lost all hope of returning to a life outside prison.
“I want to get out, but it seems impossible,” Ms Daranee, better known as “Da Torpedo”, said Tuesday via a small microphone at Khlong Prem prison’s visiting room.
Her voice was hoarse and her words sounded fuzzy as she could hardly open her mouth to speak due to severe jaw dysfunction.
Wearing a light-brown prison uniform, the 46-year-old woman who was once a key speaker of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, looks much different now from when she frequently appeared on UDD stages last year.
She is now skinny, with a glum look and stooped shoulders. But her eyes still show a strong determination to fight on. “I’ve lost 15 kilos since arriving in here,” she said.
Ms Daranee was arrested at her Bangkok home on July 22 last year on lese majeste charges following her speeches at a UDD rally.
Since then she has been detained at the Central Women Correctional Institute in Bangkok’s Chatuchak district.
Fellow UDD supporters, anti-coup students and activists, no longer come to visit her, she said.
Key UDD leaders including Jatuporn Prompan, Veera Musikhapong and Nattawut Saikua, have never showed up, she said.
Only her elder brother and her lawyer still pay occasional visits….
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