Justice
An academic was charged by police with computer crime (15 years in the Greybar Hotel). Charnvit Kasetsiri, former rector of Thammasat University, re-posted a Facebook comment that a purse carried to the Trump lunch by Naraporn Chan-o-cha was probably a Hermes bag. It wasn't, and that is a cruel and unusual charge to make against the wife of a prime minister. Pol Col Olan Sukkasem of the police cybercrime department was careful to note that Mrs Naraporn didn't complain. Neither did her husband. Meanwhile at the Supreme Court, the extremely well-off ex-chief of the DSI, Tarit Pengdith, faced charges of concealing assets. The National Anti-Corruption Commission charged he had hidden away 346.65 million baht. The court sentenced him to three months in jail, suspended, and a 5,000 baht fine.
Press freedom
You would expect a 10-country region in the top half of the world's most oppressive attacks on free speech to keep up the pressure. And you'd be right. Last week's cause celebre was Rappler.com of the Philippines, once a beacon of the free press. President Punisher Duterte hates, literally detests Rappler.com because "it throws shit at us". Which is figuratively true. But the company controlling Rappler has a lot of US money in it. That violates the Philippines' law that media companies must be Filipino-owned. So Rappler is about to lose its operating licence. That's an attack on press freedom without doubt, but it is also matter of the law. Support for Rappler was far from unanimous. The National Press Club of the Philippines came down on the other side. "Responsible journalism also means complying with the law," wrote the NPC's Paul M Guttierrez and added: "Rappler is just one among the thousands of [free] media entities in the country."
Onsen odium
A blanket of forgetfulness and a willingness not to know really bad things has allowed a horrible little business to grow into an industry. A raid on the huge and hugely profitable Victoria's Secret massage parlour ripped open the secrets. Human trafficking, forced prostitution, bonded service and -- probably -- child prostitution are part of the Big Business of Bangkok Onsen, the stolen Japanese word used to cover what's really going on. The Victoria's Secret massage parlour operation supposedly has business tentacles so respectable they embrace the Stock Exchange. The DSI received allegations a year ago about operations at the parlour. As a result, there now are snide charges that the raid and coming criminal charges are political. One can only hope the DSI will get the case straight this time, and follow it to the top.
Drug trafficking
Two days after a public self-flailing over their inability to catch big-fish drug traffickers, police claimed they caught a big-fish drug trafficker. She is Thip-arpha Raksasaeng, wife of a big-shot highway policeman, Pol Lt Col Thanakrit Nitsaphan. His convenient posting in Chiang Mai allegedly allows him to brilliantly advise Ms Thip-arpha on the best route to Songkhla, to avoid police checkpoints. Again allegedly, she is a major trafficker in the drug ring headed by Lao Xaysana Keopimpha. When police arrested him exactly a year ago this week, they said they had busted a Myanmar-to-Malaysia trafficking ring. Apparently they were exaggerating. Police chief Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda was complaining that drug seizures last year had tripled but had no effect on arrests or catching drug lords.