Suwicha Thakor has entered the monkhood in his hometown of Nakhon Phanom, after being released from prison where he was detained for over a year on lèse majesté charges.

Lèse majesté convict Bunyuen Prasertying was recently granted a royal pardon on the occasion of Coronation Day (5 May), and released from jail around the same time as some other convicts, including Suwicha Thakor.

Bunyuen did not look much changed from when she was in prison.  Though seemingly not in very good health, and walking unsteadily as a result of an old motorcycle accident, her eyes still shone with enthusiasm.

Reporters Without Borders welcomes the pardon that King Bhumibol Adulyadej issued on 28 June to Suvicha Thakhor, who was serving a 10-year jail sentence on a lèse majesté charge for allegedly using software to modify photos of the royal family before posting them online.

Reading the latest and possibly last letter from jail from convicted lese majeste and computer crime law offender Suwicha Thakor dated January first 2010 was a sobering experience. The letter reflects Suwicha's lack of faith on Thai mainstream media which do not care to put his side of the story to the public. So instead, Suwicha only mentioned in his Thai-language letter, the left-leaning not-for-profit prachatai.com online newspaper which duly published his letter on Wednesday.

Reiterating its appeal to King Bhumibol Adulyadej to pardon nine bloggers (see the 4 December press release: http://www.rsf.org/King-asked-to-pardon-Internet.html), Reporters Without Borders today published a letter written by one of the jailed bloggers, Suwicha Thakor, from prison.

Thailand should reverse its recent backward slide in respect for freedom of expression, as illustrated by the sharp increase over the past ten months in cases under the lese majeste law.

Reporters Without Borders has written to King Bhumibol Adulyadej on the eve of his birthday on 5 December asking him to pardon Thai Internet users who are in jail or who are being prosecuted in connection with the dissident views they allegedly expressed online.

The Criminal Court has agreed to a request by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to detain Nat Sattayapornpisut, 27, who has been charged under the 2007 Computer Crimes Act after he was found to have sent offensive clips to a blog called ‘StopLeseMajeste’. 

BANGKOK, THAILAND - Using a combination of high-tech online sleuthing and a century-old royal defamation law, Thai authorities are tightening the screws on free speech here during a sensitive time for its influential monarchy.

According to Anont Nampa, lawyer for lèse majesté convict Suwicha Thakor, the public prosecutor has asked the Court to extend the period for filing an appeal that should have ended on May 3, to June 1.  In effect, the case is not finished, and Suwicha’s family cannot start the process of seeking a royal pardon.

‘And if the prosecutor files an appeal during this time, the case will drag on,’ said Anont.

‘Please help me!  I’ve no one to turn to,’ Thitima Thakor panicked over the phone in the morning of May 12.

‘What’s happened?’

‘Five days ago, Nui (Suwicha’s nickname) was transferred to Zone 7.  The other inmates forced him to be tattooed.  There are 37 people in his cell.  Nui was scared.  He didn’t yield.  He told me if he was tattooed, he would kill himself,’ Thitima anxiously spoke of the latest situation for her husband, Suwicha Thakor, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for posting lèse majesté content on the internet.