Appeals Court acquits Surapong of libel charge

BANGKOK: -- The Appeals Court today acquitted former foreign affairs minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul of defamation charge brought against him by a former Bangkok senator.

The verdict today was seen to uphold earlier ruling by the Criminal Court that Mr Surapong was not guilty as charged by Rossana Tositrakul and her husband Santisook Sophonsiri.

Rossana filed libellous suit against Surapong when he revealed to news media on October 22 , 2008 that she behaved inappropriately for bringing her husband to a parliament meeting on October 7, of the same year with no authorisation.

The Criminal Court later ruled the former minister was not guilty with reason that Surapong had formally asked the Senate Speaker to investigate the attendance with no authorisation. The court said his disclosure to news media was a faithful criticism and a behaviour of normal citizen, and his act did not meet the criteria of defamation charge.

At today’s hearing of the appeals, the court upheld the first court’s ruling and acquitted him of the libel charge.

Surapong was in the court to hear the ruling while Rossana assigned her lawyer to hear.

It was not known if she would appeal to Supreme Court or not.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/appeals-court-acquits-surapong-libel-charge/


-- Thai PBS 2014-09-02

Frivolous + stupid + idiotic charges like this must be thrown in the bin before reaching court , there should be a process whereby these charges can be heard and then decided upon, this is a case in point , total waste of courts time and I couldn't care less about Surapong.

It's an insane system when it allows such childish claims to progress, as this woman has charged.....and typically shows the immaturity of some of these so called "leaders".

A face saving attempt that failed....thankfully !!

Frivolous + stupid + idiotic charges like this must be thrown in the bin before reaching court , there should be a process whereby these charges can be heard and then decided upon, this is a case in point , total waste of courts time and I couldn't care less about Surapong.

I read that the Scottish, an inventive and earthy people if there ever were, do have such a mechanism, and that a lower court can use highly defined rules to utterly dismiss frivolous charges. Of course, the attorneys in most countries want nothing to do with that....

An off topic post has been removed.

Let us hope that the good, workers rights advocate, British guy Andy Hall, gets off as well as he truly deserves to.

How about a fine of 10X the damages requested applied to the proponent of these charges.

What is clearly needed is a reform of the Libel Law itself. Is it going to happen, Is it ......

What a waste of money and resources