The military court in Bangkok on Friday rejected a bail request from the man accused of writing messages defaming the King on the restroom walls of a shopping mall, despite his illness.
Opas C., 67, allegedly wrote the messages, mainly criticizing the coup makers, in a restroom of Seacon Square shopping mall in eastern Bangkok on 15 October. After the security guards of the mall detained him and fined him 2,000 baht, they handed him over to the military. The military detained him without charge for two days before filing the case with the police.
At a press briefing, held by a staff member of the Judge Advocate General’s Office, Opas admitted that he wrote the messages.
On Friday the court ruled to extend the custody of the suspect for 12 more days, after he has already been detained for 17 days, due to the severity of the case. The police claimed that they have not finished drafting the case and needed to question five more witnesses, while the defence lawyer argued that the case is not complicated and the suspect’s testimony is beneficial to the case.
After the court ruled to extend custody, the lawyer again requested bail, using a title deed worth 2.5 million baht as security, citing the suspect’s eye disease, with the risk of blindness. However, the court denied bail, saying that the court has denied bail once and would not change the decision.
The messages allegedly written by the suspect mainly criticized the junta leader Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha and the Democrat government which ruled the country from 2011 to 2013. They condemned the two governments for abusing Article 112.
One of the messages reads: “The government of clowns that robbed the nation, led by f*** Prayut. They have issued ridiculous policies of amateur comedians. Their main job is to use the monarchy ([censored by Prachatai*]). Their main weapon is Article 112. I’m sick of seeing your face [Prayut] every day. It tells me that you [Prayut] are near the end because of the looming internal conflict.”
*The censored phrase, allegedly a reference to the King, merely describes a physical description of a person.
Read related news: [UPDATE] Man charged with lèse majesté for writing messages criticizing junta in mall restrooms
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