Thai court jails mentally ill woman for insulting monarchy
Bangkok: A Thai court on Tuesday jailed a mentally ill 65-year-old woman for one year for allegedly defaming the monarchy by insulting a portrait of the nation’s revered king.
Thitinan Kaewjantranont, a so-called Red Shirt supporter of the toppled former government, was accused of “inappropriate action against a portrait of the king” at the Constitutional Court in northern Bangkok on July 13, 2012, with no further details given. Initially Thitinan was given a suspended sentence for the 2012 offence as she was deemed to suffer from mental health problems, but the Court of Appeals rolled back the one-year suspended sentence Tuesday after prosecutors appealed.
“The defendant’s behaviour was so evil… her actions should not be imitated by others, so the Court of Appeals lifted her one year jail term suspension,” a judge said, reading the ruling. Recognising she suffers from mental health issues, the court said she is ordered to see doctors every six months, without giving details of her condition. Thailand’s monarchy is protected by one of the world’s harshest lese majeste laws, and convictions have surged since a military coup last May.
Under Section 112 of Thailand’s criminal code, anyone convicted of insulting the king, queen, heir or regent faces up to 15 years in prison on each count. In late April the International Commission of Jurists — an international human rights group — said at least 49 people have fallen foul of the royal defamation rules since the coup, including those investigated, detained, convicted or awaiting verdicts. Critics of the law say it is used as a weapon against political enemies of the royalist elite. Reporting lese majeste cases is fraught with difficulty and media must heavily self-censor. Even repeating details of the charges could mean breaking the law. (AFP)
Bangladesh customs seize 325 gold bars
Dhaka: Customs officials in Bangladesh’s second largest airport in Chittagong city on Tuesday seized 325 gold bars weighing 38 kg, a Customs Intelligence Department official said.
“We’ve found 228 gold bars abandoned at a toilet in the Shah Amanat International Airport,” the official told Xinhua news agency.
Later in the day, 37 more bars were seized from a passenger shortly after he arrived in Chittagong from Dubai, the official added.
According to the official, the gold bars are worth about 162 million taka (around $2 million). (IANS)
Indian-American Professor wins USD 12,500 teaching award
Washington: An Indian-American Professor at the University of North Carolina in US has won a USD 12,500 award for excellence in teaching. Chemistry professor Sivanadane Mandjiny was named UNC Pembroke’s recipient of the UNC Board of Governors 2015 Award for Excellence in Teaching. Annually, the Board of Governors names one professor at each of the 17 UNC campuses to receive the award.
The award winners will collect a commemorative bronze medallion and a USD 12,500 cash prize. Mandjiny joined the faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Physics in 1996 as a teaching associate and earned tenure in 2006. He became department chair in 2011 and continues in that role today. In making the announcement, Chancellor Kyle R Carter had high praise for Mandjiny’s dedication to teaching and mentoring students, the university said. Mandjiny came to Pembroke from France where he obtained his PhD and was doing post-doctoral research. A native of Tamil Nadu, he earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Madras, a master’s degree in biochemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), a second master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Toronto and a PhD from the Universite de Technologie de Compiegne in France.
Mandjiny’s studied in three languages, Tamil, English and French, and he taught himself Hindi. “If you have positive energy and thinking, everything will go well,” he said. “Sometimes students have to flounder before they can succeed. Students also need a guru, which is a teacher – and teachers can change your life,” said Mandjiny. He has mentored many research projects on subjects applicable to alternative energy, agricultural science and chemistry in zero gravity. (PTI)
Cambodia welcomes home 10th century statue of a Hindu god
Phnom Penh (Cambodia): Cambodia welcomed home a 1,000-year-old stone statue of a Hindu god that was looted from a temple during the country’s civil war and spent the past three decades at an American museum. The 10th century sculpture of Hanuman, was formally handed over today at a ceremony in Phnom Penh attended by government officials and the director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, which acquired the sculpture in 1982. “If Hanuman were alive, we would see a smile on his face showing his joy at being here among us where he belongs,” Deputy Prime Minister Sok An said at the ceremony in the Office of the Council of Ministers. The statue was stolen from the Prasat Chen Temple in the Koh Ker temple complex in Siem Reap province, which is also home to the famed Angkor Wat temples, said Sok An, adding that it was shipped to Europe and then the US. “Now, after his long journey, he is finally back home,” said Sok An, who praised the museum’s initiative in returning the statue and called on others “to follow the example of returning plundered treasures to their rightful owners.” Officials at the Cleveland museum found last year that the statue’s head and body were sold separately in 1968 and 1972 during the Vietnam War and the Cambodian civil war. An excavation showed the sculpture’s base matched a pedestal at the ancient temple. “As more and more information came to light, we became firmly convinced that the sculpture belongs here,” said William Griswold, the director of the Cleveland museum. He said that when the museum acquired the piece its connection with the Koh Ker temple was “far from certain.”
The Hanuman is the sixth “blood antiquity” returned to Cambodia in recent years. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York returned two, and one antique has been returned each from Sotheby’s auction house, Christie’s auction house and the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California. (AP)
Indonesian police arrest
7 in seafood slavery case Jakarta: Two Indonesians and five Thais were arrested on charges of human trafficking connected with slavery in the seafood industry, Indonesian police said on Tuesday.
They were the first suspects taken into custody since the case was revealed by The Associated Press in a report two months ago. The arrests were made yesterday and late Friday in the remote island village of Benjina, said Lt Col Arie Dharmanto, National Police anti-trafficking unit chief. Five Thai boat captains and two Indonesian employees at Pusaka Benjina Resources, one of the largest fishing firms in eastern Indonesia, were taken into custody. The arrests come after the AP reported on slave-caught seafood shipped from Benjina to Thailand, where it can be exported and enter the supply chains of some of America’s biggest food retailers. “They have committed an extraordinary crime, and we will not let it happen again in Indonesia,” Dharmanto said. “We will not stop here. We will pursue those who are involved in this case, whoever they are.” Police will recommend they be charged by prosecutors. If the men go to trial, they could face jail sentences of up to 15 years and fines as high as USD 46,000, he said.
He said the number of suspects would likely climb because authorities are still investigating how thousands of foreign fishermen from Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand were put on fishing boats in Thailand sometimes after being tricked or kidnapped and brought to work in Indonesian waters where they were not allowed to leave. Many said they were beaten and forced to work up to 24 hours a day with inadequate food and unclean water. Most were paid little or nothing at all. (IANS)
