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WORLD> Asia-Pacific
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Australia asks Thailand to pardon jailed writer
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-22 11:56 SYDNEY – The Australian government has asked Thailand to pardon a writer jailed for insulting the royal family, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said.
Australian Harry Nicolaides, 41, was sentenced to three years in jail by a Bangkok court Monday after pleading guilty to lese majeste, or slandering the monarchy. Smith told reporters late Tuesday that he had written to Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya to express the government's "strong support" for Nicolaides' request for a royal pardon. He said he had also taken up the writer's case at an Asia-Pacific summit meeting last year. "I raised Mr Nicolaides' case with then Thai foreign minister Sompong (Amornviwat) when we met at APEC in November last year," Smith said. The Australian, who had previously worked as a university lecturer in Thailand, has already been in custody for about five months after being detained at Bangkok airport's departure lounge on August 31. The charge against him relates to a passage in a novel published in 2005 titled "Verisimilitude," of which Nicolaides' family says only a handful of copies were sold. Thai authorities have banned nearly 4,000 websites in recent months for allegedly insulting the monarchy. Police said last week that more than 17 criminal cases of insulting the royal family are currently active. |
