Lawyers for jailed political activist Ekachai Hongkangwan have petitioned the Department of Corrections to urgently transfer him to Thammasat University Hospital for treatment of a stomach tumour that they say has left him in critical condition.
Tests showed the tumour was 11 centimetres long and 8cm wide, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said on Wednesday.
Ekachai, 48, was admitted to the Central Correctional Hospital on Sept 8 with jaundice and other symptoms, leading doctors to conduct a variety of tests. They subsequently discovered a lump on the right side of his stomach.
He is on a ward with 30 patient beds, most of which are filled with elderly prisoners suffering from various illnesses such as pulmonary edema.
However, on Wednesday Ekachai was taken from the hospital to the Criminal Court, where he is a defendant in a case stemming from a protest outside the United Nations building in Bangkok in 2018.
Ekachai told his lawyers that he wanted to have surgery at Thammasat University Hospital as the prison hospital did not appear ready to perform the procedure.
Ekachai’s first imprisonment stemmed from his arrest in March 2011 for selling pirated copies of an Australian television documentary on the Thai monarchy. That led to a conviction under Section 112 of the Criminal Code, the lese-majeste law, in April 2013. He was sentenced to three years and four months in jail.
After his release he became a thorn in the side of the military government of Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, which kept a close eye on his protest activities. He taunted Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon for his collection of luxury watches, and was subsequently beaten up by people who did not share his views.
In June of this year he was one of five people acquitted of threatening the safety of Her Majesty the Queen — a rarely used section of the Criminal Code — in an incident involving a royal motorcade in 2020.
In July of this year he was jailed again, when the Supreme Court upheld his one-year sentence for the Computer Crime Act offence of posting on Facebook graphic tales of his sex life while in prison.