The British academic who was detained in custody at Bangkok airport after correctly accusing a Thai civil servant of forgery and plagiarism – has been told he will be deported from Thailand on Thursday despite being incorrectly put on the country’s blacklist out of spite.
Wyn Ellis, from Swansea, an agriculturalist with the United Nations Environmental Programme based in Bangkok has been told that his name cannot immediately be removed from the blacklist as the committee meets infrequently.
The Royal Thai Immigration Department have asked him to pay the 250 Euros for a budget flight back to Oslo on Thursday by which time he will have spent a week in what he describes as ‘obnoxious’ conditions, detained air side in a holding cell in Suvarnabhumi International airport.
Wyn Ellis has been involved in a long standing battle with Thailand’s Director of the country’s National Innovation Agency, Supachai Lorlowhakarn after accusing him of stealing his material on which the director gained a Masters degree from Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.
Supachai took Dr. Ellis to court in nine different cases and lost them all. The order to blacklist Dr. Ellis was placed at the height of the legal action and was done at the request of the Director of the National Innovation Agency, who had lost face as a result of the allegations.
In fact Ellis won all his cases right through to Thailand’s Supreme Court and Supachai Lorlowhakarn was convicted of forgery and given a suspended sentence, and had his degree revoked by the University.
Said Dr. Ellis from detention in Bangkok airport: “The Immigration are being good to me. I have had my third shower in a week and they gave me a good lunch yesterday. But not much else appears to be functioning and they insist I will have to go back to Norway, my last point of departure. The airline said they would not take me to Singapore, which is preferable.
“British Ambassador Mark Kent has called me a couple of times saying he is trying to do something. But he does not appear to be having much success.”
The NIA had sent a letter to Thailand’s Immigration department withdrawing the original request for blacklisting. But it appears that was not acted on by the Immigration department and the blacklisting remained in place.
Over the years and during his trial in Thailand Dr. Ellis, whose stolen thesis included a section on the growing organic asparagus has had to be put under witness protection after receiving phone death threats and having rocks thrown at his car on the way to court.
“If the deportation goes ahead I trust the NIA will pay for the ticket. Even though Supachai had now been removed, it is the NIA’s actions which have caused this
This case twists my mind into a pretzel. This poor bastard gets his work stolen, gets sued for complaining about it, suffers death threats and violent attacks and now is going to be deported? All because of one vindictive turd who was too lazy to do his own research. This is just outrageous. Career scum like boiler room scammers, Noyes and the other two stooges roam free and this guy, who is in Thailand actually trying to do some good, is going to be removed in an act of bureaucratic madness. Just when you thought the Thai government couldn't get any more dysfunctional. Where is the embassy? Leaving him to sweat in a holding cell at the airport is not good enough.
I will say it again. The "loss of face" thing in Thailand is a joke. There is simply no face to lose. What a farce of a country.
Their country their rules it seems even though he had a Thai passport? Presumably if someone find that in some old cupboard and returns he'll be fine to come back…
Thankfully some sense has prevailed and Wyn was released this evening.
Disgraceful state of affairs. He should never have been placed in detention in the first place. Asking him to pay for his ticket is beneath contempt – he should be paid a large amount of compensation for the way he has been treated.