Greek-Australian writer enduring 'unspeakable suffering' of Thai justice

Greek-Australian writer Harry Nicolaides needs our help. Please let your nearest Thai embassy or consulate know that their government must uphold freedom of speech and release him. Their monarch must surely be more concerned by the corruption unearthed and the wellbeing of his subjects championed by Nicolaides than his Highness' image as a figurehead.


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Dummy cops leave child porn unchecked

Harry Nicolaides July 29, 2008

In a small dimly-lit room at the Burmese immigration office, on the border of northern Thailand and Burma, there is a large, luminous portrait of General Than Shwe, festooned with medals and ribbons.

His steely gaze surveys the hundreds of foreign tourists who cross the border bridge to visit the ramshackle, open air market at Tachilek each day. He is also the embodiment of the strict and relentless censorship of everything, from poetry to the latest Rambo film (set in Burma), controlled by his Orwellian regime.

Less than 50 meters away, under the bridge on the Burmese side, you can buy, for a little over a dollar, films depicting the sexual abuse and torture of British, American, European and Asian children. Some are aged as young as four while none is older than 12.

And unless you are a saffron-robed monk, you will not be searched on the way back across the border into Thailand.

While the market at Tachilek is notorious for fake designer goods, dubious precious gemstones, the teeth, skulls and skins of endangered animals and phony pharmaceuticals, the child pornography is real. The tears and shrieks are not the result of dubbing or digital manipulation.

The graphic footage of a five-year-old Cambodian girl having her arms strapped to her legs with electrical tape before being subjected to unspeakable violations is unrehearsed.


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Australian arrested in Thailand for lese-majeste

An Australian writer has been arrested in Thailand and faces a lese-majeste charge for publishing a novel deemed defamatory to the country's royal family, police and the Australian embassy said on Wednesday.

An embassy official identified the man as a 41-year-old from Melbourne and police named him as Harry Nicolaides, who was unaware there was an arrest warrant out for him when he tried to fly out from Bangkok to Australia on Sunday.

"An arrest warrant was issued in March for a book he wrote in 2005 deemed defamatory to the crown prince," Police Lieutenant-Colonel Boonlert Kalayanamit told Reuters.


Author Harry Nicolaides to plead guilty to Thai royal insult

An Australian writer who says he's endured "unspeakable suffering'' in a Thai jail will plead guilty to criminal charges of insulting the country's royal family in his 2005 novel.

A shackled Harry Nicolaides was led into Bangkok's Criminal Court for the opening of his trial on Monday, and told reporters he would plead guilty.

"I'm pleading guilty,'' said Nicolaides, 41, who has already spent five months in a Thai jail awaiting trial.

"I would like to apologise. This can't be real. It feels like a bad dream.''

The author was arrested in August at Bangkok's international airport as he was about to board a flight home to Melbourne, apparently unaware of a March arrest warrant issued in connection with his novel Verisimilitude.

According to the Nicolaides family, only 50 copies of the book were published and fewer than 10 sold.

Thailand is a constitutional monarchy but has severe lese majeste laws, mandating a jail term of three to 15 years for defaming, insulting or threatening the royal family.

Nicolaides, a Melbourne resident who lived in Thailand from 2003 to 2005 where he taught at the Mae Fah Luang University, has described his novel as a commentary on political and social life of contemporary Thailand.

"Tell my family I am very concerned,'' he told reporters, breaking down in tears.

He said he had endured "unspeakable suffering'' during his pre-trial detention but did not elaborate....