On 22 Jan, Kittichai Charnchoengsilpakul, Da Torpedo’s brother, together with some 30 activists, red shirts and monks, presented a petition to the Corrections Department, requesting the agency to provide medical treatment for Daranee.

Readers have sent e-mails to Smart Buy magazine, criticizing a column written by a dentist who talks of Da Torpedo’s molar abscess as bad karma resulting from speaking ill of the monarchy.

Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul was visited by her brother and a group of activists on the last day of the year allowed by the prison for visiting inmates.

A group of activists who plan to visit Da Torpedo in prison on 30 Dec invite the media and interested persons to join them. 

On 2 Dec, the Social Move group of activists visited Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul at Khlong Prem Prison.  They found her still active in discussing political issues, despite the fact that inmates are supposed to be kept away from politics through the prison’s various means of censorship.  She was very happy to have received letters from sympathizers in many countries.  

On 27 Oct, Prawase Praphanukul, lawyer for Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul, filed an appeal at the Criminal Court, which in late August had sentenced her to 18 years in jail for lèse majesté.

On 24 Sept, Prawase Praphanukul, lawyer for Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul, together with a group of activists, submitted letters to the embassies of the US and Australia, and the offices of the EU and the UN in Bangkok, asking those countries and organizations to call on Thailand to stop the imprisonment of political prisoners.

Da Torpedo’s lawyer has submitted complaints to the Corrections Department, asking for an explanation of what he alleged as discrimination against his client, including putting her in solitary confinement as a punishment and labeling her as a lèse majesté convict. He also suspected warders of eavesdropping on his talks with his client, and prying into confidential documents.

Prachatai has made several visits to Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul during her detention in the prison. Here is her life in the lockup, assembled from her own accounts.

BANGKOK, Aug 31 (IPS) - Thailand’s draconian lese majeste law is steadily emerging as a testing ground for the principles that renowned international human rights lobbies stand for.

There she was, in a tiny undated black and white photo, slightly over an inch in height and less than an inch in width, still smiling. Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul, aka Da Torpedo, a former journalist and a supporter of ousted and convicted former premier Thaksin Shinwatra. Daranee’s posture is slightly Mona Lisa-like – which is rather bizarre, given the kind of news she found herself in.

On 28 Aug, the Criminal Court found Daranee Charnchoengsilapakul guilty as charged and sentenced her to 18 years in jail.

On Aug 5, the Criminal Court held its final hearing in the case of Daranee Charnchoengsilapakul.  Suwit Lertkraimethi, a postgraduate student at Thammasat’s Political Sicence Faculty and an anti-coup activist testified as a defence witness, followed by Daranee herself.

On July 30, a group of activists visited Daranee Charnchoengsilapakul at Klong Prem prison, marking the 1st anniversary of her detention pending trials for lèse majesté.

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.

Da Torpedo was acquitted on a charge of besieging the ASTV office, but was fined for insulting Sondhi Limthongkul.  

On July 28, Bangkok South Criminal Court ruled on the charges against Daranee Charnchoengsilapakul or Da Torpedo of instigating unrest, detaining others, damaging property, trespass and defamation, in an incident on 1 June 2007, when she led a group of about 50-70 red shirts to protest at the ASTV office on Phra Athit Road.

A group of activists called Social Move has sent emails inviting the public to visit Daranee Charnchoengsilapakul at Khlong Prem Prison, at 9.30-11.30 am on July 30, to give her moral support.

A defence lawyer for alleged lese majeste offender Daranee Charncherngsilpakul expressed concern yesterday that his client may suffer a negative outcome because she faces a closed-door trial.