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Chiranuch Premchaiporn

Chiranuch Premchaiporn

Blog: http://www.prachatai.com/05web/th/home/
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
13° 40' 2.4168" N, 100° 27' 32.3424" E
Status: Released
Arrested between 06 Mar 2009 and 31 Mar 2010
Campaign Site: http://thaipoliticalprisoners.wordpress.com/pendingcases/chiranuch-premchaiporn/

Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster of independent Thai online news portal Prachatai, was arrested on March 6 under Thailand’s Computer Crimes Act.

Her charges resulted from allowing comments posted by readers of Prachatai’s online discussion fora alleged to be lèse majesté.

On April 7, Chiranuch was called to Royal Thai Police headquarters for further investigation. She was accompanied by Prachatai director Chuwat Rerksirisuk and her two lawyers. Thai police laid nine new charges against Chiranuch resulting from the information she herself gave them after her arrest.

Police claim the alleged illegal postings were allowed to remain on Prachatai fora for periods of one to fifteen days. Police consider each posting to be a separate violation of the computer law even though these were removed promptly after notification by Thailand’s ICT ministry.

Additional charges under the cybercrime law mean that Chiranuch is facing 50 years in prison for comments she did not create. Chiranuch is facing 50 years for not self-censoring webboard posts fast enough for government censors.

On March 31th, 2010, Chiranuch Premchaiporn was granted bail after prosecutors eventually filed a lawsuit against her under the Computer Crimes Act. According to Bangkokpost.com , "Ms Chiranuch had to wait nearly four hours before bail was approved with a 300,000 baht bond, calculated on her salary as a nursing sister, for not removing commens posted on a web-board deemed offensive to the monarchy fast enough to satisfy the government censors."

The Political Prisoners in Thailand blog reports also that "The charges against her relate to “allowing comments posted by readers of Prachatai’s online discussion alleged to be lèse majesté. If found guilty, she could get 50 years imprisonment, however, the practical maximum term for her could be as long as 20 years.” That’s 50 years! Recall that Suwicha Thakor was originally sentenced to 20 years." and that "She is scheduled to appear in court on 31 May after first being arrested in March 2009. PPT urges the international community to watch this case carefully and urges all interested and concerned parties to write to the Thai embassies and consulates in their areas."

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