Thai safety officials defend their determination to lodge a complaint against an American academic
PUBLISHED: 29 Apr 2025 at 15: 37
The Internal Security Operations Command ( ISOC ) has denied that there is a connection between the stalled US-Thai trade talks and the allegations that an American academic was lacked a Nobel Prize.
The safety agency’s claims that Paul Chambers and Thailand’s efforts to persuade the US to lower steep tariffs were simply accidental were made by an Isoc official.  ,
Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra claimed on Saturday that he was informed that conversations that had been postponed for April 23rd in Washington were being caused by legal proceedings against some American people.
Although Thaksin provided no specifics, the Chambers situation quickly sprang up in rumors. The US State Department recently stated in a statement that it was “alarmed” by the repercussions of the Thailand case for intellectual freedom.
According to Maj Gen. Thammanoon Maison, Isoc Region 3 and the Third Army lodged concerns about computer crimes and lese-majeste crimes in Phitsanulok county after receiving a related petition that implicated an action that might contravene Section 112 of the Criminal Code, the lese-majeste rules.
Isoc had a duty to protect regional institutions and bring legal action against any conduct by Thai citizens or foreigners that he perceived as insulting nobility, he said.
The problem officially centers on a notice for a university conference on Thailand’s military and police reshuffles that was organized by the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. Mr. Chambers, a recognized authority on the subject, was listed as a listener.
Mr. Chambers has claimed that he neither wrote nor published the language, which has since been removed from the Institute’s site.
According to Maj Gen Thammanoon, the prosecution of Mr. Chambers complied with routine processes of the justice system and the rule of law, and community may wait for a verdict from the justice method and take the verdict.
Security-related officials, according to deputy prime minister Phumtham Wechayachai, took foreign relations into account when handling the Chambers event.
According to Mr. Phumtham, if an intellectual did nothing wrong, he would be spared of trial, but if it was proven that he had done something wrong, he would be held legally accountable.
This month, Mr. Chambers, a professor and special adviser on foreign affairs at Phitsanulok’s Naresuan University, was charged. Less-majeste is guilty of three to fifteen years in prison.
He was given bail after a night of detention, but the requirement was that he use an ankle-mounted digital monitoring device.
He claimed that his behavior did not indicate an intention to escape, and that he had filed a petition with the Phitsanulok court on Monday demanding that the system be taken down. According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, the judge denied the request.
Mr. Chambers is well-known in scientific circles as a pundit on politics and civil-military relations in Asia, with a particular emphasis on Thailand. He holds a PhD in social science from Northern Illinois University. Since 1993, he has resided in Thailand.