Sakan: lèse-majesté charges from prison chats

11 October 2017

Sakan was scheduled to be released from Bangkok Special Prison after having finished his prison sentence. However, before he was released, police officers from Prachachuen Police Station seized him and brought him to their police station to interrogate him about the allegations of violating Article 112 of the Criminal Code on three counts against him. According to the information received, he denied all the allegations during the interrogation.

 

 

12 October 2017

 

An inquiry officer from Prachachuen Police Station brought Sakan to the  Ratchada Criminal Court to request that he be held on remand. Meanwhile, Sakan’s relative petitioned the Court for his temporary release on the bail of 400,000 THB. Approximately at 4 pm, the Court denied the petition, considering the gravity of the offenses which carried high penalties. Moreover, the inquiry officer had informed the Court that they disapproved the petition because they were afraid that Sakan would flee from justice.

 

 

28 December 2017

A public prosecutor issued an order to indict Sakan. The prosecutor provided the following details as grounds for his indictment:

 

 

On an unknown date, in October 2014, Sakan was still serving his time in the Prison for his previous offense since 2009. On that day, the defendant was watching a television program that broadcasted the royal duties of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX). Allegedly, he daringly said “…”, referring to the late King in a defamatory and malicious manner.

 

The second time was on 5 December 2014. At the time, the defendant was still serving his time in the Prison. On that day, the Prison organized a ceremony on the occasion of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s birthday and the National Father’s Day. During the ceremony, everyone had to sing Thailand’s Royal Anthem in homage to His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) and Her Majesty Queen Sirikit. Allegedly, while others were singing the song, Sakan daringly said, “…”

 

 

The third time was on an unknown date in early December 2014. At the time, the defendant was still serving his time in the Prison. When the prisoners were waiting for a regular morning assembly to pay respect to the national flag, the defendant allegedly said that he used to serve in the Royal Thai Navy SEALs but later realized that he was protecting the wrong person. Allegedly, he was referring to His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), who was the King at the time, in a defamatory and malicious manner.

 

 

Accordingly, the public prosecutor asked the Court to punish Sakan under Article 112 of the Criminal Code on all the three aforementioned counts and urged the Court to deny bail lest the defendant would flee from justice.

 

 

26 March 2018
Trial date

 

At 9 am, the public prosecutor, as well as Sakan’s lawyer and grandchildren, appeared before the Ratchada Criminal Court for a scheduled trial. Having waited in the courtroom until around 10 am, they were eventually informed by a court clerk that the trial will be postponed until the afternoon because the Court’s administrative staff had not filed a request to summons the defendant from the prison. The trial would thus resume at 1:30 pm.

 

 

At 1:30 pm, the Judge and both parties were present in the courtroom for the trial. The public prosecutor called 20 witnesses including the inquiry officer, the complainants, and Sakan’s fellow inmates. On the other hand, the defense lawyer called two witnesses including Sakan, the defendant himself; and Kit, one of the inmates who filed a complaint against Sakan.

 

 

Nonetheless, the public prosecutor contended that Kit would also be called as the prosecution’s witness, thus making it unnecessary to call him again as the defense’s witness. The Court agreed and thereupon ordered the defense lawyer to cross-examine Kit during the examination of the prosecution’s witness instead. The defense lawyer had no objection and made 12 appointments for witness examination from 16 to 19 and from 24 to 25 October 2018.

 

 

While waiting for the Court to transcribe the trial proceedings, Sakan informed trial observers that the cause that had motivated this lawsuit was Sakan’s personal conflicts with other inmates while he was in prison for the other offense. During that time, Sakan was assigned a responsibility to lead physical exercises in prison. He said that his leadership position made other prisoners dislike him. Those prisoners also accused him of being a redshirt supporter and often spoke ironically of Thaksin and Yingluck in front of him. Supposedly, they were the ones who filed the complaints against him.

 

 

1 June 2018
The Court granted a temporary release for Sakan during the trial period. 

 

 

16 October 2018

The examination of the prosecution’s witness

 

 

At 9 am, in Courtroom No. 714, both the plaintiff and Sakan appeared early before the Court and had to sit through another case’s ruling. The trial for Sakan’s case began at approximately 10 am. During the trial, Sakan revoked his previous denial of charges and confessed to his violations of Article 112 of the Criminal Code. Therefore, the Court ordered the defense lawyer to submit a statement of confession by 9 November 2018 and scheduled a judgment hearing on 14 November 2018.

 

14 November 2018
The judgment hearing 

 

Criminal court ruled to dismissed the case