Journalist faces jail in Thai libel case
Claire Cozens, press and publishing correspondent
Monday July 5, 2004
MediaGuardian.co.uk
An award-winning British journalist, who has written for the Times and Observer and made documentaries for Channel 4 and the BBC, will today find out whether he will be sentenced to jail in a long-running libel case brought against him in Thailand.
Andrew Drummond, who has worked as a freelance reporter in Thailand for the past 15 years, is fighting a libel action brought against him by a British night club owner over an article he wrote in the English language newspaper the Bangkok Post.
A judge in theThai beach resort of Pattaya is due to deliver his verdict today in the case against Drummond, who faces up to six months in jail if he is found guilty.
James Lumsden, co-owner of the BoyzBoyzBoyz bar in the seaside resort, claims he was defamed by the article, which suggested he and his business partner had framed a millionaire Yorkshireman and defrauded him out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Mr Lumsden initially included the Bangkok Post in the suit, but dropped the complaint after the newspaper’s editor issued an apology.
But he continued his case against Drummond, who denies the charges and says his story was both true and in the public interest.
“It’s rather bizarre because the Bangkok Post has apologised and been let off the hook but I’m still on a criminal charge,” he said.
“Officially the sex trade doesn’t exist in Thailand, so it’s very difficult - although of course my story was about fraud not sex.
“I’ve been out here for 15 years and the local Thai authorities have already tried to deport me. I am paying own legal fees with a small contribution from the British Association of Journalists. It’s not an enviable position to be in.”
Drummond’s article alleged that Yorkshire businessman Kevin Quill had been set up on drugs charges by Thai police and then robbed by his business partners, Mr Lumsden and the co-owner of the BoyzBoyzBoyz club, Gordon May.
Mr Quill was arrested on his way to Bangkok airport in October 2000 carrying a cigarette packet containing 100 amphetamine pills.
Shortly before his arrest, Mr Quill had invested £300,000 with Mr Lumsden and Mr May in a hotel and bar. He claimed he was set up by the pair and subsequently robbed.
Drummond said it “beggared belief” that Mr Quill should have tried to smuggle the drugs.
“This guy’s a patsy, he’s not involved in drugs. The drugs they found on him would carry an automatic death sentence if he had been caught with them at the airport. It is beyond belief that anyone would just carry that in a cigarette case,” he said.
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