Posts Tagged ‘Jatupat Boonpattararaksa’

Gwangju award for human rights defender Pai Dao Din upsets Thai government

May 10, 2017

The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs gets upset easily as shown by the reaction to the granting of the 2017 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights (South Korea) to detained student activist Jatupat Boonpattararaksa, better known as Pai Dao Din. He has been in prison in Khon Kaen on lese majeste and computer crime charges since 22 December 2015, when 10 Khon Kaen University’s students from “Dao Din” group were arrested at the Khon Kaen Democracy Monument.

Pai Dao Din a day after the Khon Kaen court denied him bail again (FB/Jom Petchpradab)
Now the Thai ambassador to Seoul has written to the human rights award giver in South Korea asking it to ‘reconsider ‘ honouring jailed activist Jatupat Boonpattararaksa.

In a copy of the letter was acquired by the Bangkok Post (copy below):

The detained defender had been hoping to make bail so he could attend the award presentation ceremony in person, but his request was denied. In refusing Mr Jatupat’s bail requests, the Region 4 court and Khon Kaen Provincial Court described him as a flight risk who could tamper with evidence. The laureate is thus unlikely to be abel to travel on 18 May to the award ceremony in Gwangju and Mr Jatupat’s mother Prim Boonpattararaksa and her husband Viboon will represent their son and receive the award on his behalf.

National Human Rights commissioner Angkhana Neelapaijit, who won the Gwangju Award for Human Rights in 2006, described it as a prestigious accolade.

Source: Envoy queries Korea award for Jatupat | Bangkok Post: news

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