Free Somyot Now

FOR IMMEDIATERELEASE

19 September 2012 – Bangkok

Free Somyot Now

Humanrights and labour organizations today urge that magazine editor and human rights defender Somyot Prueksakasemsuk be immediately released from17-month pre-trial detention. Ifconvicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison under Article 112 of the CriminalCode (the lèse-majesté law) for the publication of two articlesdeemed insulting to the monarchy. Thegroup further called on the Thai authorities to uphold international standardsof freedom of expression, and to stop using Article 112 and arbitrary detention tocriminalize or restrict free speech.

The outcome of Somyot’s trialis a litmus test of Thailand’s commitment to protect the rights to freedomof opinion and expression, the group said

Somyot has been held in prisonsince his arrest in April 2011, five days after he launched a petition campaignto collect 10,000 signatures required for a parliamentary review of lèse-majesté law. Lengthy pre-trial detention of Somyot clearlyviolates Thailand’s obligations to refrain from arbitrary detention.

On 18 September, the ThaiCriminal Court cancelled a court hearing in his case scheduled for 19September, prolonging his pre-trial detention indefinitely. The Criminal Court did not provide reasonsfor the cancellation or a new date for the hearing.

Background

Authorities have turned downSomyot’s eleven requests for release on bail. In denying him provisionalrelease, the court has not provided adequate justifications, as required bySection 40(7) the Constitution and Section 107 of the Criminal Procedure Code,which restrict pre-trial detention to exceptional circumstances, and by theInternational Covenant on Civil Political Rights (ICCPR), which Thailand has ratified.

During the past two years,Thai courts have repeatedly denied bail to alleged lèse-majesté offenders. The UN Human Rights Committee, whichoversees compliance of States with the ICCPR, has reminded States thatpre-trial detention may, in itself, be a violation of the rights to liberty andpresumption of innocence.

Thailand’s lèse-majesté law prohibits any word oract, which “defames, insults, or threatens the King, the Queen, theHeir-apparent, or the Regent”. The law overrides the Thai constitution andplaces the country in contravention of its international legal obligations touphold international standards of freedom of expression. Thai civil societygroups, families of those prosecuted under the lèse-majesté law, and United Nations human rights experts haverepeatedly called for a public debate on reform of the lèse-majesté law. When Thailand’s human rights record was examinedin October 2011 during the Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human RightsCouncil, its member states addressed more than a dozen recommendations to amendor repeal both the lèse-majesté lawand the 2007 Computer Crimes Act that criminalizes online defamation under thesame provision. Four of the alleged lèse-majesté offenders, includingSomyot, have pending requests to the Constitutional Court to rule on theconstitutionality of Article 112. On 19September, Somyot was expected to learn if the Constitutional Court had ruledon whether Thailand’s lèse-majestélaw complies with guarantees of freedom of expression and the press in the 2007Constitution.

The UN Special Rapporteur onthe promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression“reiterate[d] the call to all States to decriminalize defamation” in his report(A/HRC/17/27) to the UN Human Right Council in May 2011. The UN Declaration onHuman Rights Defenders guarantees the right “[t]o submit to governmental bodiesand agencies and organizations concerned with public affairs criticism andproposals for improving their functioning and to draw attention to any aspectof their work that may impede the realization of human rights.” Thailand hasincreasingly criminalized writers and editors of publications that carryarticles deemed offensive to the monarchy.

For more information, pleasecontact:

Arthur Manet

Press Officer

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)

+ 33 1 43 55 25 18

Isabelle Scherer

Coordinator

World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) + 41 22 809 49 39

Brittis Edman

Southeast Asia Programme Director

Civil Rights Defender

+46 8545 27751

Mary McGuire

Senior Communications Officer

Freedom House

+1.202.747.7035

Ineke Zeldenrust

International Coordinator

Clean Clothes Campaign

+31-6-51280210

Olof Blomqvist

Press Officer Asia/Pacific, Media Programme

Amnesty International – International Secretariat

Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7413 5871

Mobile: +44 (0) 790 4391 956