After being imprisoned for five years, Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, a long-time labour activist turned lèse-majesté suspect, urged the authorities to improve treatments for inmates, saying prisoner rights deteriorated greatly after the 2014 coup d’état.
Suwanna Tanlek, a pro-democracy activist, on Thursday morning, 16 June 2016, submitted a petition to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). The petition was written by Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, former editor of the now-defunct Voice of Taksin magazine charged with offences under Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse-majesté law.
Somyot wrote in the petition that the rights and treatments towards inmates in Bangkok Remand Prison have deteriorated greatly since the Department of Corrections (DC) imposed new rules and procedures in prison on 1 March 2016.
Inmates are prohibited from reading newspapers and the DC only allowed their families to send them three books per month which they will be allowed to read only after the authorities screen the contents of the books, Somyot states in the petition.
In addition, he added that the new DC rules stipulates that inmates can only have the amount of 9,000 baht money per month in their Bank account for buying commodities in prisons and that their relatives or families can only transfer 3,000 baht into their accounts per a visit.
This makes it difficult for families of inmates who live abroad or in other regions of the country to give money to inmates.
Recently between 6-8 June 2016, the DC officers confiscated the pillows, blankets and the sleeping mattresses from inmates and destroyed them while issuing new a order which only allows inmates to possess three blankets distributed to them by the DC, which are low quality blankets adding physical and emotional tolls to many elderly inmates and already suffer from sickness, Somyot added.
Suwanna who recently visited Somyot told the NHRC that it is quote clear that the measure to prohibit inmates from reading newspapers and regulating the types of books they could read were enforced after the 22 May 2014 coup d’état in order to bar them from consuming political news.
“If inmates are imprisoned for three to five years and are not allowed to consume news from the outside world, they will have great difficulties in adjusting themselves once they are released,” Suwanna said. “There is a joke among inmates who would ask if they still use mobile phones with buttons outside prisons.”
She added that another issue which is not mentioned in the petition is the restriction on visitors of inmates. After the 2014 coup d’état, the authorities only permit 10 visitors officially listed as those who are allowed to visit inmates to pay visits, which cause great difficulties to their friends and families.
“I’m here today to ask for help, Somyot told me that the restrictions might get worse once the complaint is made,” said Suwanna, adding that it is undeniable that Somyot is a prisoner of conscious.
Angkhana Neelapaijit, the head of the sub-commissioner of political rights of the NHRC promised Suwanna that she will pass on the petition to the NHRC and relevant authorities for consideration, adding that if Somyot feel unsafe or treated worse in prisons after he made the complaint, the NHRC shall be informed of such matter immediately.
Since Somyot was first arrested in April 2011 and placed behind bars, like the majority of detainees booked under Article 112, Somyot has been consistently denied bail, despite 16 bail applications being submitted.
The long-time labour rights activist and human rights defender. From 2007 until his arrest, he was Editor of the Voice of Taksin magazine. In Somyot’s case, the Article 112 charges stem from his allegedly allowing two articles, with allegedly anti-monarchy content, to be published in the now defunct Voice of Taksin Magazine.
Unlike, many other suspects of the lèse-majesté who chose to plead guilty to end the trial and having their jail sentence reduced, Somyot has always stood firm on his ground and maintained that he is not guilty.
Somyot in the prison (photograph from the Facebook page of Sa-nguan Khumrungroj)