Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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Thai Junta Critic: Prison 'Like Hell on Earth'

Zsombor Peter

   BANGKOK - "Prison proves if you are a fighter," says Siraphop
   Kornaroot.

   The 55-year-old Thai poet and author should know, having spent the past
   five years in a Bangkok jail without having been convicted of a crime.
   Released on bail in June, he still faces up to 45 years behind bars if
   found guilty at his long-running trial, currently taking place in a
   closed military court.

   Officially, Siraphop stands accused of breaking the country's Computer
   Crimes Act and strict lèse majesté law for a trio of Facebook posts
   and cartoons allegedly skewering Thailand's revered royal family. But
   the political activist is convinced that the old posts were dredged up
   to punish him for his true "crime" -- criticizing the military junta
   that had wrested power from an elected government about a month before
   his arrest on June 25, 2014.

   Siraphop, whose pen name Rungsira roughly means "born with strength,"
   tells VOA he turned out to be a fighter.

   "Prison is like hell on earth. There is no human dignity in the cell,"
   says Siraphop, who adds he spent most of his days confined to a
   sweltering 5-by-12-meter room with 40 to 50 other men. "No food. No
   games. No books. Only drinking water."

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