Received by email:
In the afternoon of 11 February 2011, the court informed the public prosecutor and defendant lawyers that the judges will not be free on 15 and 16 February as they will have to attend to cases related to drug-related matters and other matters.
The public prosecutor offered the opinion that a problem has arisen since the witness hearing appeared to be taking more time than expected. The witness hearing for the prosecution was supposed to be finished at this point in the trial, but only five out of fourteen had testified. Given that most of the prosecution witnesses are civil servants, it is also difficult for them to reschedule their plans. This problem also coincides with the yearly schedule when civil servants are appointed. The public prosecutor then requested to cancel the dates for witness hearings next week, which were scheduled to take place on 15, 16, and 17 February 2011. The public prosecutor still needs to conduct hearings of nine additional witnesses.
The defendant lawyers did not have any objection to this and requested four days for the witness hearings for their side.
Given these circumstances, the judges have no objection to the request of the prosecutor and the agreement of the defendant to the request of the prosecutor. For the benefit of justice, the court has issued an order to cancel the witness hearings on 15 – 17 February 2011.
The new dates for the witness hearings for the public prosecutor will be on 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 20, 21 September 2011 (for nine witnesses). The new dates for the witness hearings for the defendant will be on 11, 12, 13, 14 October 2011 (for eight witnesses). [UPDATE: apologies for the date errors in an earlier version of this email. AW]
For a summary of the trial so far, see the daily updates on Freedom Against Censorship Thailand.
Thai Intel’s inside has an interesting comment saying how come lese majeste is everywhere in Thailand but the attention is drawn to Prachathai? the case is flimsy at best and the issue is that offending remarks were taken down too slow…Ok so what’s the big deal? A contact, a Level 8 official, at the Thai Labour Department’s “Research Unit” told Thai Intel the following:
QUOTE
“Prachathai is the only Thai media that is dedicated to labor rights…….It has a long track record of reporting on Thai labor issues……There is no other Thai media that is doing that at the concentration and level of Prachathai…….We find it to have a very strong socialist leaning………..Prachathai is also making contact with global labor organizations……….In one case, it has greatly damaged Thailand’s export to Europe and in other case, has greatly hurt the North American market for Thai goods……….My recommendation is for the government to discuss these matters with Prachathai so that these other issues can be bought to Prachathai attention…….But my boss said he had a better way of dealing with Prachathai……”
UNQUOTE
http://thaiintelligentnews.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/thai-media-intelligence-the-truth-behind-the-prosecution-of-prachathai/
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I’d like to know more about the artist who drew the sketch. His blog at http://martoart.multiply.com/journal looks fascinating, though I don’t grok very much of it since it’s in Bahasa Indonesia.
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Error message instead of Prachathai website on the screen:
Error 503 Service Unavailable
Guru Meditation:
XID: ……
Varnish cache server
The guys at MICT show some strange sense of humor.
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The Thai legal system is an absolute disgrace. Trial lawyers on both sides know how long a trial should take and how long they need to prepare for trial. Having heard both sides the court ought to set aside a block of consecutive days – weekends and public holidays excepted. It should not nominate a day here and a day there, Witnesses should be at the court’s beck and call, not their own. Anyone who doesn’t turn up as a witness is either excluded or held in contempt of court.
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