MARBELLA CLUB

Thai police formally charged leading leftist commentator Giles Ungpakorn on Tuesday with insulting the king, the latest in a slew of lese majeste cases critics say are stifling dissent and freedom of speech.Following are details of some of those who have recently fallen foul of the law, which carries between 3 and 15 years in prison for insults or threats to the deeply revered monarchy.In many cases, the status of the investigation is unclear due to police reluctance to discuss the taboo issue of the monarchy's role in politics, which is officially nil.

JAKRAPOB PENKAIR - A spokesman for ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Jakrapob had to resign as a minister in the pro-Thaksin government in May after being accused of slandering the king in a talk at Bangkok's Foreign Correspondents' Club.

JONATHAN HEAD - The British BBC correspondent in Bangkok has received three lese majeste complaints. One was related to an online BBC story not written by Head which did not place the photograph of the king at the top of the page, as is customary in Thailand.

CHOTISAK ONSOONG - The young political activist was accused by police in April of insulting the monarchy for refusing to stand during the royal anthem that precedes all movie screenings in Thailand.

JITRA KOTCHADEJ - A union activist and friend of Chotisak, Jitra was fired by bosses at her clothing factory in August for appearing on a TV panel discussion wearing a T-shirt saying "Not standing is not a crime," a reference to Chotisak.It is not known if she has been charged by police.

SULAK SIVARAKSA - A leading academic and long-time critic of the lese majeste law, the 75-year-old was taken from his Bangkok home late one night in November and driven 450 km (280 miles) to a police station in the northeast province of Khon Kaen.
There, he was charged with insulting the monarchy in a university lecture he gave in December the previous year.

HARRY NICOLAIDES - An Australian author, English teacher and long-time resident of Thailand, Nicolaides was sentenced to three years in jail this week for defaming the crown prince in his 2005 novel, 'Verisimilitude'. Only seven copies of the book were sold.

DARUNEE CHARNCHOENGSILPAKUL - More commonly known as "Da Torpedo," the pro-Thaksin campaigner was arrested in July after delivering an exceptionally strong 30-minute speech denouncing the 2006 coup and the monarchy.She is thought still to be behind bars, although it is not known if she has been formally charged.

SUWICHA THAKHOR - Suwicha was arrested last week on suspicion of posting comments on the Internet that insulted the monarchy. His arrest coincided with a speech by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva saying the law should not be abused.

OLIVER JUFER - The Swiss national was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2007 for spraying black paint on huge public portraits of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. He was pardoned and deported after serving four months.

"The grim reality about generational debt bondage in the Third World
and the enslavement of Thai women into the sex industry are revealed
in VERISIMILITUDE. Towns in Northern Thailand whose populations have
been decimated by the AIDS virus have been left as dustbowls
littered with orphans, widows and stray dogs. This is the horror of
the truth not dissembled by politicians, deconstructed by academics
or finessed by journalists."

Police and medics were called out to the police box at Soi Nernplubwan on Sunday 11th January, after Mr. Jeff Johnson arrived to report that he had just been stabbed whilst drinking with his wife at a friend’s bar. Apparently, the 59 year old got into an argument with the owner, named as Alan, which turned nasty as he stabbed Mr. Johnson in the chest. He was rushed to hospital and an investigation is now under way about the incident.

Three Frenchmen found themselves at Pattaya Police Station on the morning of the 20th January, charged with the serious crime of drug possession and drug taking. The three, Enriquez, 29, Sanz-Fernandez, 39 and Zaidi aged 36, together with two teenage Thai women were given urine tests which proved positive to taking drugs. They were caught in a police raid at an apartment in Soi Bonkai 2, South Pattaya where they were involved in a swinging sex and drug party. The men, who have only recently arrived in Pattaya, all denied the allegations even though two large packets of marihuana were seized as evidence against them. They have all been detained for further questioning.

According to news reports, the offensive passage in Verisimilitude amounts to three sentences that concern the romantic life of an unnamed crown prince

."From King Rama to the Crown Prince, the nobility was renowned for
their romantic entanglements and intrigues. The Crown Prince had
many wives "major and minor "with a coterie of concubines for
entertainment. One of his recent wives was exiled with her entire
family, including a son they conceived together, for an undisclosed
indiscretion. He subsequently remarried with another woman and
fathered another child. It was rumoured that if the prince fell in
love with one of his minor wives and she betrayed him, she and her
family would disappear with their name, familial lineage and all
vestiges of their existence expunged forever."

As reporters covering Nicolaides were warned that it would be just as illegal for them to repeat the passage as it was for him to publish it, news reports I've seen don't say what the disrespectful sentences are. They do say that the law Nicolaides broke has never been invoked by the royal family itself, always by government officials who say the offense puts national security at risk.

Why? Because Thai democracy is constantly falling apart and being patched back together, and the near universal reverence in which the Thai people hold their King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 81, has been deemed indispensable to keeping the country in one piece. Here's blogger Sean Nelson, an American who's taught in Thailand, calling Nicolaides a "fool," adding, "To openly publish such a book and remain in Thailand is asking for trouble."

Nelson continues, "If you do some research on the life of King Bhumibol, you'll see a great man. He's used his ancient powers to up-lift (in a close and personal way) impoverished rural Thais. He took a strong interest in up-lifting the far North of his nation out of suffering and opium-growing. Coffee is now the thriving crop and the land is ideal for it. Not only has he crossed boundaries by allowing commoners to openly look at him, but also to lay hands on him (laugh if you will, but it's a profound symbol.) Considering the culture to which he belongs, he has been a strong force for liberty and equality in Thailand. And, in my possibly wrong opinion, expatriates who under-mine the royal family or the crown prince shit where they sleep."Which, from the descriptions of prison life in Bangkok, might be what Harry Nicolaides will be doing for the next three years. Unless the king pardons him -- and given the king's forgiving history with a law he has said he personally regrets, this is an outcome that's not only possible but even, we must hope, likely.
There are bloggers who maintain that Verisimilitude is so obscure they question whether the book actually exists. They seem to be looking for reasons not to sympathize with Nicolaides. But here's a post from the Akha Heritage Foundation (the Akha are a tribe who live in the hills of northern Thailand) that not only claims the book exists but reviews it, calling it a "trenchant commentary on the political and social life of contemporary Thailand....Savage, ruthless and unforgiving, VERISIMILITUDE pulls away the mask of benign congeniality that Thailand has disguised itself with for decades and reveals a people who are obsessed with Western affluence and materialism and who trade their cultural integrity and personal honour for the baubles of Babylonian America." Then the post prints what it claims is an excerpt from Nicolaides's book, an excerpt describing the romantic exploits of a crown prince. Read it if you dare, but then don't plan a vacation to Thailand.The Akha Heritage Foundation post says, "Write the Thai Government, the Australian Government, and demand his release." That would be a welcome development, and I'm not sure their post brings it any closer.