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Tom Dundee: Make Lèse majesté Speeches, the second case

Latest Update: 06/08/2019

Defendant

Thanat Tanawatcharanon or “Tom Dundee”

Case Status

On trial in Court of Appeal

Case Started

2015

Complainant / Plaintiff

No information

Table of Content

While Thanat, a musician and Red Shirt activist was in detain during his first Lese Majeste trial at the Bangkok Military Court, a prosecutor from the Office of Attroney General filed anther lèse majesté charge against him before the Criminal Court.

In his second lèse majesté case, Thanat was charged with lèse majesté and with Computer-related Crime Act. The charge was due to video clips on youtube that contained Thanat's speeches. Video clips in the second case were posted almost at the same period of time with the clip in his first case. 

Defendant Background

“Tom Dundee” or “Thanat Tanawatcharanon resided in Tha Yang district, Phetchaburi province.
 
Thanat is wellknown in an alias name "Tom Dundee" Before being arrested, he was an agriculturist.
 
In the wake of political conflict in Thailand, Thanat gave speeches in political ralies hosted by the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) as well activities hosted by other Red Shirt Groups. 
 
After the coup on 22 May  2014, Thanat was arrested twice. At first, he was arrested for defying the NCPO summon order at his house in Petchaburi province on 9 June 2014 but the Military Court later released him on bail.
 
One month later, Thanat was arrested again at his house on 9 July 2014 under lèse majesté charges.
 
In October 2015, while Thanat was in detain for his first lèse majesté trial the prosecutor from the Office of Attroney General filed another lèse majesté charge against him before the Criminal Court.  
 

Offense

Article 14 (1) Computer Related Crime Act, Article 14 (3) Computer Related Crime Act, Article 14 (5) Computer Related Crime Act, Article 112 Criminal Code

Allegation

Tom's second statement of accusation can be summarized as follow.

On 13 November 2013, Thanat made statements during a Red Shirt political rally. In his speeches, Thanat made statements with false information to defame the King and the Queen of Thailand with an intention to convince the public to hate the King and the Queen.

Thanat, the defendant also working together with others as a group to make false statements, recorded them and uploaded the false contents on website from 13 November 2013 to 26 April 2014. The act constituted the offense against the Computer-related Crime Act.

     

Circumstance of Arrest

On 9 July 2014, officers from the Technology Crime Division Suppression (TCSD) along with 20 military personals arrested Thanat at his house in Tha Yang district, Phetchaburi province.
 
This case was filed while Thanat is in detain at the Bangkok Remand Prison while fought another lèse majesté case which was filed before the Bangkok Military Court. 

Trial Observation

No information

Black Case

อ.3475/2558

Court

Criminal Court

Additional Info

No information

Reference

No information

8 June 2014

Around 9.00 pm, the NCPO order no. 53/2014 was broadcasted nationwide via television and radio stations summoning individuals including Thanat to report to the NCPO at the Royal Thai Army Club, Thevet, on 9 June 2014 from 10.00 am to12.00 pm.

9 June 2014

Thanat’s wife called a high-ranking military officer that Thanat will report himself in the evening of this day because he just knew that he was summoned.

At around 3.00 pm, while Thanat was driving back from a forest, military officials and polices arrested him because they afriad that Thanat might flee.

12 June 2014

Lt. Col. Burin Thongprapai, the judge advocate along with military officials brought Thanat to the Crime Suppression Division (CSD). Thanat was held in custody for two nights.

14 June 2014

Around 11.00 am, Thanat was taken from CSD to the Bangkok Military Court to request for pre-trial detention order.

A lawyer from Free Thai Legal Aid (FTLA) submitted the provisional release petition with 20,000 baht as a deposit, the court later released him on bail.

9 July 2014

TCSD officers along with 20 military personals arrested Thanat at his house in Tha Yang district, Phetchaburi province under Article 112 of the Criminal Code (lese majeste) and Section 14 of the Computer-related Crimes Act. 

Thairath online reported that Pol. Gen. Somyot Pumpanmuang and Pol. Maj. Gen. Siripong Timula, commander of the TCSD held the press conference regarding the arrest of Thanat with the arrest warrant of the criminal court and the Bangkok Military Court under lese majeste charges.

The officials said that the arrest was due to two video clips of Thanat's speeches that were publicized on Youtube website.

The first video clip, Thanat gave a speech at the rally hosted by  Red guard Radio on 6 November 2013.

The second video clip, Thanat gave a speech on 13 November 2013 at the Lak Si Monument in Bangkok.

10 July 2014

Kom Chad Luek online reported that the officials from the TCSD  brought Thanat to the Bangkok Military Court to request for pre-trial detention order under the Lese Majeste charges.and the offense against the Computer-related Crime Act. 

Thanat's lawyer said that today Thanat will not request for temporary release because he still waiting for a deposit. Moreover, there was a legal problem concerning jurisdiction of the Military Court as his alledged offense occured before the NCPO authorized the Jurisdiction of the Military Court to try civilian. Thanat was later transfered to remand at the Bangkok Remand Prison.

19 October 2015

While he is in detain at the Bangkok Remand prison during stand trial at the Military Court, the prosecutor from the Office of Attroney General filed another Lese Majeste Charge against Thanat before the Criminal Court   

20 October 2015

Deposition Examination

Daily News Online report that at 9.30 AM Thanat was taken to the Criminal Court for the deposition examination. Thanat pleaded no guilty and asked to stand trial. The court set to examine witnesses and evidences on 25 January 2016.

25 January 2016

The Criminal Court set the schedule for evidence examination at 8.30 am.

The judges began the procedure around 10.00 am, in the courtroom no. 912. The defendant refused all the allegations so the court set the schedule for witness hearing for the prosecution on 26 July 2016.

30 May 2016

Preliminery Hearing

At room no. 912 Criminal Court, the court scheduled for a preliminery hearing. In the court room at least 10 observers were present including Thanat's brother and wife. 

Around 10.30 the court asked Thanat for his plea. Thanat pleaded guilty to all charges. He also requested the court by himself to end the proceeding as soon as possible and to give light sentences. 

The court initially told Thanat that the verdict will be hand down today. However, the court need to wait for a case file from the prosecutor the court then set to hand down a verdict on 1 June 2016 at 10.00 AM. Since Thanat asked the court to give light sentence, the court then ask Thanat to submit a petition to enter plea of guilty.  

1 June 2016
 
Hearing of a Verdict 
 
The Criminal Court scheduled Tanat to hear a verdict in courtroom no. 912 at 10.00.
 
Before 10.00, there were 10-15 journalists and Tanat’s friends waiting in the courtroom. Tanat was brought to the room at 10.30, not long before the Court presided. 
 
Before reading the verdict, the Court had asked Tanat as to whether he still would like to sing the reconciliation song and that he would plant some trees in a forest as a royal honour as Tanat had declared in his petition to enter plea of guilty. Tanat reaffirmed his willingness to do so to the Court. Therefore, the Court asked the people presented in the courtroom to be witnesses and Tanat confirmed his pledge before them.
 
The Court started the verdict hearing by explaining the number of counts and sentences that were applicable to Tanat without reading its verdict. 
 
Initially, the Court explained that he had intended to divide Tanat’s conduct into into five offences; 3 of them were offenses against the King, 1 was an offense against the Queen and another one was offence under the Computer-related Crime Act for having uploaded video clips onto a computer system.

However, after having consulted with the Director-General and the Deputy Director-General of the Criminal Court, there was agreement that the 3 offenses against the King were continuous actions; therefore, they would be counted as one.
 
The Court found Tanat guilty on three counts; 1 lese majeste count from a speech insulting the King, 1 lese majeste count from a speech insulting the Queen and 1 offense under the Computer-related Crime Act for uploading a video clip on Youtube website.

The Court sentences Tanat to 5 years imprisonment for each count, which is 15 years in total. As the Tanat pleaded guilty, the Court mitigated the sentence by half, which is 7 years and 6 months in prison.
 
ilaw observed that although, according to the indictment, the speech and the uploading of the video clip onto the computer system took place on the same day, the Court assumed that they were not continuous acts because by nature, humans cannot speak continuously for 5 to 6 hours. The Court asked Tanat as to whether he had taken a break on the day he gave the speech, and whether he spoke again after the concert.  Tanat responded to the Court that usually the concert was staged at the end.

Moreover, the Court did not watch the video clip of Tanat's speech, which was evidence,  because the video clip  could not be played.
 
With regards to Tanat’s request to the Court to sentence him to a lighter sentence, the Court believed that it was already appropriate to sentence him to 5 years in prison for each count. This was due to the fact that the penalty for the breach of Article 112 ranged between 3-15 years prison term. In this case, the Court did not sentence him to 15 years as it was too harsh. However, the Court did not sentence him to 3 years in prison because statement according to the charges , were severe and could not be revealed to others in the cour troom.
 
The Court reiterated that upon his release, Tanat should keep his promise according to what he stated in the petition to enter plea of guilty. Meanwhile, he could help the work of the Correction Department.
 
After the verdict, Tanat revealed that he did not expect the verdict to be this harsh. He first thought that there was only one count in this case. However, he admitted the verdict as he had best defended himself.
 
For the other case that was prosecuted in the Military Court, he intended to plea guilty as well. The singing and planting trees were the activities he had planned to do before the trial.  Finally, he insisted that he would not appeal the case.
 
26 August 2016
 
Thanat's wife informed that Thanat's lawyer had informed her that the prosecutor had requested the court to extend deadline for the submission of appeal to 1 September 2016. 

 

Verdict

No information

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