The lese majeste verdict in the case against Prachatai webmaster Chiranuch Premchaiyaporn will be read out on April 30, two years after her trial began and three years since her arrest under the Computer Crimes Act (CCA) and the Criminal Code’s Section 112.
The Ratchada Criminal Court set the date for the verdict on Thursday.
Today was the final hearing. The defence team was told to submit their closing statement within 30 days.
Ms Chiranuch was arrested on March 6, 2009 on charge of lese majeste under CCA articles 14 and 15 and the Criminal Code’s section 112. She was granted bail within a day on her sister’s surety of 300,000 baht. Her trial began on March 31 and was completed this afternoon.
The final witnesses this week included the owner and administrator of the pantip.com website and web board, Wanchat Padungrat, and Chulalongkorn University assistant professor Pirongrong Ramasoota of the faculty of communications arts.
Mr Wanchat said his company had never been sued since the CCA took effect in July 2007, but there were lawsuits involving some people who posted comments.
While his company seemed to be lucky in not being entangled with any suits, Mr Wanchat told the court that it was impossible to monitor and check all the postings. It was not economically viable and technically troublesome.
Ms Pirongrong, expert on internet media, told the court that the Prachatai web board had put in place additional safeguard mechanisms, in addition to the four basic guidelines given by the CCA laws.
On several occasions the Prachatai web board had deleted false and insulting messages, in addition to the content ordered deleted by the ICT, Ms Pirongrong said.