The Supreme Court acquitted a computer programmer of lese majeste charges Thursday, upholding rulings by the Criminal Court and the Appeal Court, after he spent 14 months in jail on remand.
Surapak Phuchaisang, 45, from Bung Kan province, said he was delighted to get off the charges, and was now thinking of launching lawsuits against the people who had doctored computer data evidence to incriminate him. "From the first day I went to jail, I decided those who framed me should face justice," he said after the verdict was read out.
Mr Surapak thanked the court for freeing him from an "unwarranted and unnecessary" burden. He would now refocus on his software development career.
He says authorities doctored the evidence to frame him and he could sue those he thinks are responsible, and also seek civil damages for the time spent on remand.
Mr Surapak was indicted on Nov 25, 2011 for posting five messages deemed as committing lese majeste on his Facebook account.
Surapak: Unlikely to have made the posts (photo by Achara Ashayagachat)
The Court of First Instance dismissed the charges under the Criminal Code and the Computer Crime Act in October 2012 on the grounds the evidence was weak.
He said the evidence presented during the trial was a cache file from his computer, supposedly of the Facebook account from which the messages were posted.
The court found Mr Surapak was unlikely to have made the posts himself.
The prosecutor later appealed the case to the Appeal Court, which affirmed the ruling of the Court of First Instance in March 2014.
The police investigation of the Surapak case began during the Abhisit Vejjajiva government, which led to his arrest during the Yingluck Shinawatra government, the first lese majeste case under her administration.
The judge read the ruling quickly before a packed gallery at the Criminal Court on Ratchadapisek Road, saying reading the Supreme Court verdict in detail might repeat the offending lese majeste remarks.
The Supreme Court's acquittal is rare, as most lese majeste defendants either confess or are still appealing to higher courts.
Daranee Charncherngsilapakul, the longest-serving lese majeste prisoner who has been in jail for seven years, is in the final stage of seeking a royal pardon as she has given up on a Supreme Court petition.