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Published on October 4, 2007

"I can assure you that all that I wrote was true," Sulak told The Nation.

"For three decades now, the authorities have not stopped harassing citizens and even [Prime Minister] Surayud [Chulanont] once remarked that police are like the mafia."

Sulak said he received a Special Branch police notice on Tuesday ordering him to stop printing, selling and disseminating the book "A Quarter of a Century of Thai Politics: A Thorn-filled Path", published by Song Siam publishing house.

He said the order claimed the book "may cause unrest and degrade good morals" in Thai society, a charge Sulak rejected.

"I don't know where and how many copies they have confiscated already."

He said the printing law cited in the police order dated from the dictatorial era of 1941.

"I also heard a rumour that they may come and arrest me," said Sulak, who has twice been tried and acquitted on lese majeste charges.

A source who asked not to be named said the whole affair was putting the Surayud administration in a negative light and may be part of a plan by some influential group seeking to undermine the interim government.

Pravit Rojanaphruk

 The Nation