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US Citizen Visiting Thailand Arrested For Blog Posting

Posted by timothy on from the otherwise-I'd-like-to-go dept.

societyofrobots writes "A US citizen, upon visiting Thailand for medical treatment, was arrested for lese majeste (insulting the king) and computer crimes ('entering false information into a computer system'). He is charged for posting a link on his blog to a banned book, The King Never Smiles, and for translating excerpts of it. He made the posting four years ago in 2007, while in the US. Trials for lese majeste are traditionally held in secret, for reasons of 'national security'. AFP has more information."

7 of 456 comments (clear)

  1. Re:dumb fuck by zonky · · Score: 5, Informative

    Summary is not clear, but he is a Thai Citizen as well as US.

  2. Re:dumb fuck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    *cough*

  3. Re:"lese majeste" by MechaStreisand · · Score: 2, Informative

    As for this American guy, well, he shouldn't have gone to Thailand if he's going to be linking banned books and posting excerpts. There's enough information on how Thailand's authorities view both the book and it's claims. Feeling sorry for him is like feeling sorry for the drug smugglers in a Bali prison, they knew the laws of the country, and if not, ignorance is no excuse in the eyes of the law.

    No. He did that years ago, in the US, and he's a US citizen. Translating part of a book shouldn't ban you from a country forever. Equating what he did with smuggling drugs is absurd. You should kill yourself to make the world a better place.

    --
    Disclaimer: IANAL. This post is, however, legal advice, and creates an attorney-client relationship.
  4. Re:This Just In: Not All Countries Have Are Free by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm sure that I'm just tilting at windmills here; but I don't think that the US medical situation is news to anybody: As with schools, if you have deep pockets you can get among the best, hence the steady stream of foreign dignitaries and suits(some amusingly embarrassing in retrospect) showing up for the purpose. If you don't, though, quality can often drop off much faster than cost(with a little bump up down at the very bottom, where the ER people are legally obligated to scrape your ass off the street even if they can't collect). In a number of other countries, the price/quality drop off is far less steep, and thus much more sensible(and, if this guy was thai, he may also have had handy things like helpful family...)

  5. Re:"lese majeste" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    He is a born Thai and Thai national who moved to US when he was 35. I'm quite sure he is familiar with Thai laws and practices. But this being slashdot of course this small "insignificant" detail isn't mentioned in the summary. Don't want to ruin some good baseless bashing or anything, after all.

  6. Re:"lese majeste" by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 4, Informative

    The 4th Amendment, for example.

  7. Re:"lese majeste" by lorenlal · · Score: 3, Informative

    I don't know.. The whole warrant-less spying of American citizens?