Sunday, December 27, 2015 11:38:00 PM
Thailand considers defamation case against human trafficking investigator
"Thai PM: I will punish those who threatened human trafficking whistleblower"
Major General Paween Pongsirin was appointed to investigate human trafficking but now says he fears attacks from senior figures implicated in the trade
Major General Paween Pongsirin is seeking political asylum in Australia. Photograph:
Meredith O'Shea for the Guardian
Oliver Holmes in Bangkok
Friday 11 December 2015 01.39 EST
Last modified on Friday 11 December 2015 01.42 EST
Thai police are considering a defamation case against a former officer tasked with investigating human trafficking who says he fled for his life after he found senior figures in the military and police were involved in the trade.
Major General Paween Pongsirin told Guardian Australia .. http://www.theguardian.com/au?INTCMP=CE_AU .. and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he was in Australia to claim political asylum as powerful figures now wanted to kill him.
Royal Thai Police chief Jakthip Chaijinda told journalists on Friday that a legal team was checking to see if his comments were defamatory, a criminal charge in Thailand .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/thailand .
“I don’t know the reason why he had to go and speak about this issue but he should not talk about this because it could damage the country,” Jakthip said.
He added that Paween was the only police officer to raise allegations of intimidation.
The south-east Asian nation argues it has made significant efforts to combat the trade, pressing charges against more than 100 people .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/24/thai-officials-among-more-than-100-charged-with-human-trafficking , including an army general, on counts of human trafficking after dozens of bodies were found in a jungle prison camp earlier this year.
Many of the exhumed bodies were believed to be Rohingya .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/rohingya .. Muslims, a long-persecuted minority who have been fleeing Myanmar .. http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/oct/21/thousands-rohingya-refugees-flee-boat-looming-disaster-amnesty .
Paween was appointed to lead the investigation into the grim discovery, which at the time was interpreted as Thailand .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/thailand .. treating the issue more seriously. His team uncovered a major human trafficking syndicate but he says that “from the beginning” he was under pressure not to pursue the perpetrators too enthusiastically.
Paween resigned from the force last month after he was transferred against his will to an insurgency-plagued region in the deep south of Thailand. He said traffickers he was pursuing were influential in this region and “senior police” in the area were involved with the trade. He told his superiors that he feared for his life if he were sent there, but says his protests were ignored.
The investigation he led was disbanded after just five months.
The military-run government was dismayed in July when Thailand was blacklisted in a US report for the second consecutive year .. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jun/20/thai-government-us-human-trafficking-report .. for not combatting modern-day slavery, with the ministry of foreign affairs insisting it had made “tangible progress”.
Revealed: how the Thai fishing industry trafficks, imprisons and enslaves
Read more - http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jul/20/thai-fishing-industry-implicated-enslavement-deaths-rohingya
Yet human rights groups have consistently said that Bangkok could do more and that security services are involved in the secretive industry which ships in migrant workers and forces them into indentured labour on fishing boats.
The topic is extremely sensitive under the military-run government in Thailand. An Australian editor and a Thai reporter were sued for criminal defamation last year for reporting on the alleged involvement of Thai naval officers in the trafficking of Rohingya refugees.
They were found not guilty .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/01/australian-and-thai-journalists-found-not-guilty-of-defaming-thai-navy .. in September in the trial that was widely condemned by human rights and media freedom groups.
Paween did not name the senior officials he alleges are complicit in the human trafficking trade in Thailand, but says the jungle camps would have needed influential oversight to stay open.
“Human trafficking is a big network that involves lots of the military, politicians and police. While I was supervising the cases I was warned all along.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/11/thailand-considers-defamation-case-against-human-trafficking-investigator
~~~
Australian and Thai journalists found not guilty of defaming Thai navy
Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian, of news website Phuketwan, were accused in case that alarmed human rights and press freedom groups
Thai journalist Chutima Sidasathian and her Australian colleague Alan Morison arrive at the
provincial court in Phuket island. Photograph: Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/Getty Images
[...]
he defamation claims and charges under the Computer Crime Act, which bans online material considered a threat to national
security, relate to a 41-word paragraph from a Reuters news agency report on Rohingya refugees, which was republished in Phuketwan.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/01/australian-and-thai-journalists-found-not-guilty-of-defaming-thai-navy
See also:
The People vs. The Monks
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=103038540
"Thai PM: I will punish those who threatened human trafficking whistleblower"
Major General Paween Pongsirin was appointed to investigate human trafficking but now says he fears attacks from senior figures implicated in the trade
Major General Paween Pongsirin is seeking political asylum in Australia. Photograph:
Meredith O'Shea for the Guardian
Oliver Holmes in Bangkok
Friday 11 December 2015 01.39 EST
Last modified on Friday 11 December 2015 01.42 EST
Thai police are considering a defamation case against a former officer tasked with investigating human trafficking who says he fled for his life after he found senior figures in the military and police were involved in the trade.
Major General Paween Pongsirin told Guardian Australia .. http://www.theguardian.com/au?INTCMP=CE_AU .. and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he was in Australia to claim political asylum as powerful figures now wanted to kill him.
Royal Thai Police chief Jakthip Chaijinda told journalists on Friday that a legal team was checking to see if his comments were defamatory, a criminal charge in Thailand .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/thailand .
“I don’t know the reason why he had to go and speak about this issue but he should not talk about this because it could damage the country,” Jakthip said.
He added that Paween was the only police officer to raise allegations of intimidation.
The south-east Asian nation argues it has made significant efforts to combat the trade, pressing charges against more than 100 people .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/24/thai-officials-among-more-than-100-charged-with-human-trafficking , including an army general, on counts of human trafficking after dozens of bodies were found in a jungle prison camp earlier this year.
Many of the exhumed bodies were believed to be Rohingya .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/rohingya .. Muslims, a long-persecuted minority who have been fleeing Myanmar .. http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/oct/21/thousands-rohingya-refugees-flee-boat-looming-disaster-amnesty .
Paween was appointed to lead the investigation into the grim discovery, which at the time was interpreted as Thailand .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/thailand .. treating the issue more seriously. His team uncovered a major human trafficking syndicate but he says that “from the beginning” he was under pressure not to pursue the perpetrators too enthusiastically.
Paween resigned from the force last month after he was transferred against his will to an insurgency-plagued region in the deep south of Thailand. He said traffickers he was pursuing were influential in this region and “senior police” in the area were involved with the trade. He told his superiors that he feared for his life if he were sent there, but says his protests were ignored.
The investigation he led was disbanded after just five months.
The military-run government was dismayed in July when Thailand was blacklisted in a US report for the second consecutive year .. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jun/20/thai-government-us-human-trafficking-report .. for not combatting modern-day slavery, with the ministry of foreign affairs insisting it had made “tangible progress”.
Revealed: how the Thai fishing industry trafficks, imprisons and enslaves
Read more - http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jul/20/thai-fishing-industry-implicated-enslavement-deaths-rohingya
Yet human rights groups have consistently said that Bangkok could do more and that security services are involved in the secretive industry which ships in migrant workers and forces them into indentured labour on fishing boats.
The topic is extremely sensitive under the military-run government in Thailand. An Australian editor and a Thai reporter were sued for criminal defamation last year for reporting on the alleged involvement of Thai naval officers in the trafficking of Rohingya refugees.
They were found not guilty .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/01/australian-and-thai-journalists-found-not-guilty-of-defaming-thai-navy .. in September in the trial that was widely condemned by human rights and media freedom groups.
Paween did not name the senior officials he alleges are complicit in the human trafficking trade in Thailand, but says the jungle camps would have needed influential oversight to stay open.
“Human trafficking is a big network that involves lots of the military, politicians and police. While I was supervising the cases I was warned all along.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/11/thailand-considers-defamation-case-against-human-trafficking-investigator
~~~
Australian and Thai journalists found not guilty of defaming Thai navy
Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian, of news website Phuketwan, were accused in case that alarmed human rights and press freedom groups
Thai journalist Chutima Sidasathian and her Australian colleague Alan Morison arrive at the
provincial court in Phuket island. Photograph: Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/Getty Images
[...]
he defamation claims and charges under the Computer Crime Act, which bans online material considered a threat to national
security, relate to a 41-word paragraph from a Reuters news agency report on Rohingya refugees, which was republished in Phuketwan.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/01/australian-and-thai-journalists-found-not-guilty-of-defaming-thai-navy
See also:
The People vs. The Monks
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=103038540
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