Prosecution absent for most of trial of Australian and Thai journalists

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/16/prosecution-absent-trial-australian-thai-journalists

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A court hearing for an Australian website editor and his colleague accused of defaming Thai naval officers by alleging their involvement with human traffickers ended on Thursday, with the prosecution absent for two out of three days of the trial.

“It could go one way or another,” defendant Alan Morison told the Guardian over the telephone after leaving the courtroom in Phuket in southern Thailand.

A judge has until 1 September to decide on the verdict on Morison, 67, editor of the independent news website Phuketwan, and Thai reporter Chutima Sidasathian.

On Tuesday, the prosecution made its case against the two for criminal defamation and on charges under the Computer Crime Act, which bans online material considered a threat to national security. On Wednesday and Thursday, the defence called witnesses but the prosecution did not appear to cross-examine.

“It could be that they are confident that they are going to win the case on the basis of the prosecution witnesses. Or it’s a tacit acknowledgement that they don’t have a case,” Morison said. The hearing ended in the early afternoon on Thursday.

The case relates to a 41-word paragraph from a Reuters news agency report on the trafficking of Rohingya refugees, which was republished on Phuketwan. Reuters, one the largest new organisations in the world, has not been charged.

Abdul Kalam, a Burmese Rohingya activist who has lived in Bangkok for decades, was on the stand on Thursday. He described to the court how members of his ethnic minority group have told him about their experience with human traffickers in Thailand.

“He said that one of the consistent points that many of the Rohingya make is that the navy is involved,” Morison said.

The Thai navy has denied its officers were involved in trafficking. But since the charges were brought against the two journalists last year, the Thai government has launched investigations into official complicity in the trafficking trade and a senior military official was arrested.

Thailand’s ruling junta, which toppled the government of Yingluck Shinawatra in a coup last May, has stifled the media and banned political gatherings. The trial has been widely condemned by human rights and media freedom groups.

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The court has been filled with international media, rights group observers and diplomats. Morison has closed down his website for the trial.

The United Nations human rights office for south-east Asia said in a statement that it “urges the Thai authorities to drop the charges against the two journalists”.

“Freedom of the press, including freedom for journalists to operate without fear of reprisals, is essential in promoting transparency and accountability on issues of public interest,” it said.

Rights advocacy group PEN American Center, said the “government of Thailand should refocus its energies on curbing collusion in human rights abuses by members of its own navy, rather than frivolous attempts to camouflage them by shackling the press”.

Morison said he was optimistic. He said: “I’ve been very pleased that Thailand seems to have been so receptive to our case pleading our innocence and we look forward to a verdict that makes that official on 1 September.”