Thai police chase the messengers – arrest warrant issued for CSI LA admin.

Samui Provincial Court has now approved an arrest warrant for not only the administrator of the CSI LA Facebook page but also 12 of the page’s followers who dared to share some of the reports about the alleged rape of a 19 year old British tourist on Koh Tao.

CSI LA now has over 810,000 followers on its Facebook blog and follows many threads of criminal investigation in Thailand. Generally, the thread has been a vocal critic of Thai police operations. The Bangkok Post describes the site as a ‘muckraking’ page.

The administrator, Pramuk Anantasin, is believed to be a Thai expat living in the US. Samui Court says that he and the 12 ‘sharers’ have violated the computer crime laws.

After visiting Koh Tao last week police claim that the 19 year olds allegations about being drugged, robbed and raped on the island are bogus citing a lack of a police report, witnesses or other evidence.

Last Friday the editor and administrator of samuitimes.com also had an arrest warrant issued for her and another administrator for the website. Ms Buchanan lived on Samui for a time but has been back in the UK running the site remotely for four years.

She told ucanews.com that the warrants were a surprise to her.

“Many news publications in Thailand and around the world have reported on the disproportionate incidents of tourist deaths on Koh Tao. It seems very strange to me that this time the authorities are going after the Samui Times. I think the authorities are upset with negative publicity for Koh Tao and wish to silence the small publications who report on it.” – ucanews.com

Besides CSI LA and samuitimes.com many other Thai and international sites have reported the allegations. How the police believe they will be able to secure the arrest of people running websites and blogs, legally, in foreign countries, hasn’t yet been explained.

So far, despite arrest warrants out for Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra, Thai citizens living in exile in the UK and Dubai, the Royal Thai Police have not been successful in arresting them or bringing them back to Thailand to face justice. The heir of the Red Bull fortune, Vorayuth Yoovidhaya, has also alluded police attention despite having a warrant for his arrest and an Interpol blue notice – to locate, identify or obtain information on a person of interest – for more than a year.

The Thaiger has contacted the administrator of CSI LA seeking comment but has not had a response at this stage.