Thai woman indicted for pursuing conscript uncle’s case

By Max Constant

BANGKOK (AA) – A Thai woman whose uncle was beaten to death at a military camp in the insurgency-plague Muslim south has been charged with defamation and violation of the computer crime law over online posts about the case, local media reported Friday.

Naritsarawan Kaewnopparat, 25, was informed of the indictment by a court official Thursday after Maj. Phuri Perksophon, the officer who reportedly oversaw the fatal abuse of her conscript uncle, filed a case against her earlier this year, according to news portal Khaosod.

Kaewnopparat’s uncle, Wichian Puaksorn, was severely beaten and tortured by soldiers at a military camp in Narathiwat province in June 2011 because he had fled military training, an investigation by the army concluded.

The report said nine soldiers were ordered to strip him and drag him over a rough concrete surface before repeatedly kicking and beating him for several hours.

Soldiers are reported to have then put salt in Wichian’s wounds to increase the pain. They forced him to sit on ice and beat him with bamboo rods, kicked him, and stomped on his chest and head.

Wichian died from his injuries four days later.

A sub-lieutenant and the other nine soldiers received military disciplinary punishment of 30 days in detention, but were never charged for murder or other serious offenses.

The army agreed to pay the equivalent of $185,000 as compensation to Wichian’s family, after one year of negotiations.

After Kaewnopparat detailed the circumstances of her uncle’s death on her Facebook page and on popular website Pantip, and then gave a TV interview on the issue in October, Maj. Perksophon filed a case against her on behalf of the army at the beginning of this year.

This comes despite junta chief-cum-prime minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-Ocha pledging in May that torture would be made a criminal offense under Thai law to fulfill Thailand’s obligations under the United Nations Convention against Torture.

The military which seized power in a May 2014 coup, however, has appeared to be on the defensive every time accusations of torture are leveled against its personnel.

Last July, three civil society activists who wrote a report on torture in military camps in the country’s Muslim south were formally charged with defamation and violation of the computer crime act after the military filed a legal case against them.