Back in Bangkok after Phuket court case dropped

By Tim Newton

 

Leaving Phuket Provincial Court, Jonathan told Phuket Gazette, “I was confident we would win. We felt the case against us was not strong. I had faith in the Thai justice system not to put us in jail.

 

Jonathan Head is back in Bangkok following his two day visit to Phuket. His case came to an abrupt conclusion when the man suing him, Phuket lawyer Pratuan Thanarak withdrew the charges. He was suing Mr Head over a story that appeared on the BBC in 2015 where the lawyer claimed he was defamed.

 

Jonathan Head investigated foreigners being scammed of their retirement homes in Phuket in a 2015 BBC report. The BBC says “the plaintiff has withdrawn his case against BBC journalist Jonathan Head, but as the trial of his co-defendant is continuing we cannot comment further at present.”

 

Leaving Phuket Provincial Court, Jonathan told Phuket Gazette, “I was confident we would win. We felt the case against us was not strong. I had faith in the Thai justice system not to put us in jail.

 

Full story: https://www.phuketgazette.net/news/back-bangkok-phuket-court-case-dropped

 

-- © Copyright Phuket Gazette 2017-08-25

Head should now counter sue the Lawyer for slander, deformation etc etc - as they do in Thailand 

7 minutes ago, canopus1969 said:

Head should now counter sue the Lawyer for slander, deformation etc etc - as they do in Thailand 

why, is the guy a club foot or suffering from elephantiasis?
 

Hopefully this guy will lose loads of business from the Expat community (if he hasn't already) as word gets around about his antics.

There is always the "Albanian" solution ......... 

18 hours ago, canopus1969 said:

Head should now counter sue the Lawyer for slander, deformation etc etc - as they do in Thailand 

That BBC program was shown all over Australia, and it was an eye-opener.  Quite amazing how many people in very high positions had a finger in the pie.

"Always had faith in Thai justice" really Jon? Hmmm


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8 hours ago, shanesox said:

"Always had faith in Thai justice" really Jon? Hmmm


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Journalistic sarcasm

1 hour ago, shanesox said:

"Always had faith in Thai justice" really Jon? Hmmm


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His connections were better than the lawyers connections......  That's how things work.

Now that he has been found innocent how about some more revelations? There are endless subjects.

Come on BBC!

21 hours ago, canopus1969 said:

Head should now counter sue the Lawyer for slander, deformation etc etc - as they do in Thailand 

I would have thought he might have done that initially, kind of like I have gone through in small claims court. But this being a bigger case, maybe things are handled separately.  And I suspect he is happy to just get the suit against him dismissed.  He is not playing in a fair game over there, and his changes of winning such a suit might be small.  Plus he is not a Thai citizen so I wonder if the law applies the same way and allows him to sue the way the Thai guy did?

Question is whether the lawyer will face charges himself?

 

If Thailand wants to be treated seriously, then they need to apply the law to everybody who breaks it.

On 8/26/2017 at 9:53 AM, shanesox said:

"Always had faith in Thai justice" really Jon? Hmmm
 

 

The odds of him loosing this case were low, especially after the Navy defamation case in Phuket having strengthened aspects of "overwhelming public interest" as a defence in defamation cases.

 

The case was nothing but calculated harassment by judicial processes.  The lawyer knew he stood no chance and dropped it at the last moment...

 

In many other countries, public prosecutors would have carefully looked at such litigation in the first place and very likely ordered to cease it or even taken the lawyer to court for  abuse of process or malicious prosecution.

On 8/25/2017 at 2:53 PM, canopus1969 said:

Head should now counter sue the Lawyer for slander, deformation etc etc - as they do in Thailand 

not a bad idea, but then we just go round and round; then as some law people say: ' the process is the penalty'