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Wyn Ellis: Thailand frees UK academic Thailand frees UK academic Wyn Ellis
(about 2 hours later)
A British academic who accused a Thai official of plagiarism, and whose name later showed up on a national security blacklist as a potential danger to society, said on Tuesday he had been freed after being detained for four days at a Bangkok airport. Thailand has freed a British academic and long-term resident who was detained at Bangkok airport for four days after his name showed up on a national blacklist as posing a threat to national security.
Wyn Ellis, a long-term resident of Thailand with British and Thai citizenship, was freed late on Monday after he was detained shortly after arriving from Europe last Thursday. Wyn Ellis’s detention appeared to relate to a six-year-old dispute in which he proved that the former director of the Thai agency responsible for promoting intellectual property rights had plagiarised his PhD thesis on asparagus cultivation.
Ellis is working on a sustainable rice programme for the United Nations in Thailand. He discovered just a few days ago he had been blacklisted, apparently because of a 2009 letter written by the man he had accused of copying his work. An agricultural consultant who has worked with the UN’s environmental programme, Ellis had already won legal battles against Supachai Lorlowhakarn after an investigation found that 80% of his thesis had been taken from various sources. Supachai had his doctorate rescinded.
“I am out and I am off the blacklist,” Ellis told Reuters on Tuesday after spending four days in a cell with 15 other people. But when Ellis was stopped at Suvarnabhumi airport on Thursday, immigration officials showed him a 2009 letter in which Supachai describes him as a “danger to Thai society”.
“It’s a relief to be back in my own home. We had a glass of wine last night to celebrate.” The ordeal appears at best to be a failure to update the blacklist and at worst an example of the continuing ability of powerful figures in Thailand to target their enemies by exploiting the legal system.
Ellis said immigration officials showed him the 2009 letter after he was detained. In it he said former National Innovation Agency (NIA) chief Supachai Lorlowhakarn had described him as a “danger to Thai society” and accused him of forgery, stealing government documents and plagiarism. While he was detained, Ellis was allowed to access the internet. On Monday, he told the Guardian that his wife spent all morning at the immigration bureau to no avail. “The prospects for my immediate release seem dim,” he said.
Supachai sent the letter to Thailand’s immigration bureau after Ellis had filed a complaint to authorities that Supachai had plagiarised from one of his studies. But at 2.29am on Tuesday (2029 BST Monday), he tweeted that he had been released. A few hours before, the British ambassador to Thailand, Mark Kent, had said good news was imminent.
The NIA told the immigration department last week that it had revoked Supachai’s letter. OUT!!! So I am 'persona grata' again in THA. Thanks to Thai govt for removing me from the Immig Blacklist, and thanks also to all supporters
Ellis said he had been coming and going to Thailand without any problem, but had lost his Thai passport on a recent trip to Britain and Norway. He was using his British passport when he returned to Thailand on Thursday. The academic has lived in Thailand since 1985 and said his detention was part of a “long-running harassment campaign”.
He told the Guardian: “My home has undergone surveillance by individuals with false ID and false number plates, anonymous letters, long-running … tax inspections, investigation of my Thai citizenship, 480 telephone death threats, and rock attacks on my car.”