Case

Case name

Somsak Jeamteerasakul

Lèse-majesté

Name of persons / Name of Media

Somsak Jeamteerasakul

Status of Accused

No arrest pending investigation

Offense / order

Article 112 Criminal Code

Summary

A history scholar has published on his own facebook profile an open letter addressing and criticizing Princess Chulabhorn's interview on TV. Consequently, he was followed by the soldiers and got summoned for inquiry.

Basic information

Background of accused

Assist. Prof. Somsak Jeamteerasakul, male, 53 years old, is well-known history professor who has raised the issue about monarchy role in modern Thai politics for almost 17 years. He was a leader of student movement which was anti-dictatorship movement during 1970’s that Thailand was under authoritarian regime. He was the one of 18 students who were arrested on 6 October 1976 after the brutal crackdown in Thammasat University.

He always represents himself as leftist academic but he has never been a part of any political party in Thailand. He also has studied and distributed his academic articles about role of monarchy and relationship between monarchy and military in modern Thai politics after 1932. He is only academic who has seriously studied about monarchy in Thai society.

Complainant / Plaintiff

The Military

Legal Claims

Lèse-majesté

Form of restriction on freedom

Threats by police / military, Summons
Type of media

Social Network
Province

Bangkok

Details of offence according to charge

The specific cause of 112 accusation against Assist. Prof. Somsak has not been made public yet but Somsak said on 11 May 2011 that it is because of his two open letters to Princess Chulabhorn Walailak, the youngest daughter of King Bhumibol after she gave interview on public TV programme and talked about political conflict in Thailand.

Somsak faced threat after he posted his two open letters to Princess Chulabhorn on his Facebook page, the intimidation against Somsak and his wife was increasingly frightening and he eventually received summon which was filed by military.

After Princess Chulabhorn Walailak appeared on state-owned TV chanel and gave interview about political situation, Assist. Prof. Somsak wrote two open letters criticising the princess for, talking about the sorrow of the king and the queen when both of them saw protesters burnt down Bangkok after May 2010 military crackdown but not mentioning in her interview about the deaths of anti-government protesters.

Progress of case

10 December 2010, Assist. Prof. Somsak gave his public lecture in the topic “Monarchy institution-Constitution-Monarchy” at Thammasat University and then he has been threatened by non-state but state-relevant actors.

3 April 2011, the Princess Chulabhorn Walailak appeared on state-owned TV chanel and gave interview about political situation. After that, Assist. Prof. Somsak wrote two open letters criticising her opinion and then threats became more serious.

24 April 2011, Assist. Prof. and law academicians held press conference about his lese majeste accusation by Royal Thai Armed Forces and his being threaten.

11 May 2011 He answered summon and acknowledged his accusation at Nang-Leong police station. The police has charged him for article 112 which states that “Whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen, the Heir apparent or the Regent shall be punished with imprisonment of three years to fifteen years.”

7 June 2011, Assist.Prof. Somsak posted his comment on newmandala website updating his case “Today, I and my lawyer went to the same police station to hand over my written testimony. The last time I went, they handed me a 3-page memo, detailing the charge. My written testimony, 8-page long, with some accompanying documents, is in reply to their memo. (An initial date for submitting my testimony was set for 26 May, but I asked for postponement till today because of my job commitment – the new semester is opening in a few days.) Today there were only two of us and the police officer who oversees my case. (When I received the summoning paper in early May, I at first was at a lost why this particular police station is handling my case, but later realized that it’s because the Army Headquarters are in the areas covered by this police precinct. In fact the Army HQ buildings are just on the opposite side of the main road in front of the police station.)

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