http://www.harrynicolaides.com/
Cypriot jailed in ‘King and I’ nightmare
By Alexia Saoulli
AN Australian Cypriot was yesterday jailed for three years in Thailand for offending the country’s monarchy.
Harris Nicolaides, 41, was originally sentenced to six years imprisonment but this was reduced after he pleaded guilty to lèse-majesté charges.
Lèse-majesté crimes, which can carry up to a 15-year jail sentence in Thailand, apply to “whoever defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir to the throne or the Regent”.
Most cases involve Thai citizens, although foreigners are sometimes accused.
The presiding judge said that parts of the book “suggested that there was abuse of royal power”.
Nicolaides was tried for slandering the 81-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej and other members of the royal family, including the crown prince, in his 2005 self-published novel, Verisimilitude.
“He was found guilty under criminal law article 112 and the court has sentenced him to six years, but due to his confession, which is beneficial to the case, the sentence is reduced to three years,” the judge said.
The Melbourne resident, who lived and taught in Thailand from 2003 to 2005, was arrested in Bangkok last year when he tried to board a plane back home.
He had apparently been unaware of the outstanding arrest warrant against him.
The charge was prompted by a passage in Nicolaides’ novel.
“I wrote that from King Rama, and I didn’t say which King Rama, to the Crown Prince, Thai men are well-known for having multiple wives and concubines for entertainment,” the 41-year-old said at the time of his arrest.
He said the paragraph had been a work of “imaginative fiction” and was in the form of “an omniscient narrator passing a rumour to the protagonist”.
He nevertheless acknowledged it had offended Thai culture and tradition.
Nicolaides, who was born to Greek Cypriot parents who emigrated to Australia in 1955, told reporters he had endured “unspeakable suffering” during his five months of detention but would not elaborate. He also asked them to tell his family he was “very concerned”.
"This is an Alice in Wonderland experience. I really believe that I am going to wake up and all of you will be gone. I would like to apologise. This can’t be real. It feels like a bad dream,” Nicolaides said.
“I respect the king of Thailand… I was aware there were obscure laws (about the monarchy) but I didn’t think they would apply to me,” he added.
Last month his lawyer told Australian Broadcasting Corporation: “At night time he’s in a cell with at least 50 other people… The sanitary conditions, to put it mildly, are basic. People suffer from TB and HIV. There is violence within the cell.”
Reporters Without Borders had called on authorities to drop the charges against the Australian, saying “his novel never intended to threaten or defame the royal family”.
The Cyprus Journalists’ Union yesterday condemned the sentences as a “blatant violation of international justice and the right to freedom of expression” and demanded his immediate release. It also called on the State to intervene.
The paperback book, which the writer has described as a commentary on the political and social life of contemporary Thailand, has sold less than a dozen copies.
A Thai website described the book as an “uncompromising assault on the patrician values of the monarchy”. It said it was “savage, ruthless and unforgiving” in revealing a society “obsessed with Western affluence and materialism”.
Last week new Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said his government would try to ensure the law was not abused. However he said the monarchy had to be protected because it had “immense benefits to the country as a stabilising force”.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2009
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