Net surfers seek truth on cyber crime arrest

They afraid that a webmaster going missing under suspicious circumstances might be one of the victims.

The webmaster, known as Phraya Phichai, who runs www.propaganda.forumotion.com, which discusses the monarchy had been active on the Internet up until late last month. But the site had been blocked by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) since then.

Phraya Pichai is well known in the Internet community as he actively participates in web board discussions about the monarchy on many sites.

Net surfers are worried about Phraya Phichai as no one has been able to contact him since late last month when a rumour spread that he had been arrested. Many posted comments on www.prachatai.com, a site for alternative news, doubting that he might be one of the two people arrested under the new Computer Crime Act as reported by the Financial Times.

In its weekend edition, the paper reported on its front page that Thai authorities had used the new law to arrest two Thais, now in custody, for offensive comments about the monarchy made on Internet chat rooms.

However, the ICT Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom denied knowledge of any arrests.

Pol Maj Gen Wisut Wanitchbutr, commander of the Economic and Cyber Crime division, also said his division had not arrested the two Thais.

"Lese majeste is a state crime that police from every division can make arrests for, not only my division," he said in a telephone interview. He added that he had no idea which police division arrested the two Thais as reported by the Financial Times.

The unclear information about the arrests and the disappearance of Phraya Phichai has created an uneasy atmosphere. Some net surfers were worried about being lured by police to post offensive comments against the monarchy, and some said Phraya Phichai was on line again recently.

"So who chatted with me last night? Don't tell me that someone had hacked into his computer," said a comment posted on the Prachatai web board by a net surfer identifying himself as Kampol.

On Tuesday, Fah Diew Kan ("Same Sky") Publishing house, the publisher of a radical political magazine under the same name, issued a statement demanding that all agencies related to the issue, particularly the ICT Ministry and the Royal Thai Police, explain all facts related to the Financial Times' report.

"If someone was arrested, the government and all agencies concerned with the issue must respect that person's human rights and entitlement to justice," said the statement.

The Nation