I’m not taking a side here on purpose, because certain laws would apply to me then.
a) yahoo article is biased and incomplete. Don’t take it as the truth.
b) if a official report (complaint) was filed at police station then the person who complaint was about must appear at that station so they can make their own statement into same journal.
c) since company is on an island it’s normal across the world that jurisdiction of that location applies.
If other articles are to be believed (posted by others here already), the company had sufficient reason to proceed as they did. https://mothership.sg/2020/09/sea-view-resort-defamation-law...
It’s not likely that the guy will go to jail. Most cases are arbitrated before they go to actual trial.
However if the foreigner were found to be in violation of the law he most likely won’t receive the maximum punishment.
A lot depends also how he reacts at court. Could go with a slap on the wrist or much worse.
Completely unrelated to this case but relevant - some companies do go overboard with defamation lawsuits but it’s quite rare actually. Lots of Thai people and foreigners write negative reviews and nothing happens at all
- it’s not unheard of foreigners to go ballistic due to language and cultural difference. However also Thai customers do happen to sometimes get overboard and cause problems unnecessary
- The situation is really dire on islands. I went to another this weekend and most resorts and restaurants/ pubs had shut down for good. The remaining open ones aren’t operating profitably as there is are less than 10% of regular domestic and foreign tourists there.
- Lots of visitors have also less money to spend. Salaries have been reduced and many people lost jobs. Tourism sector was hit the hardest.
- There is currently no way for foreign tourists to enter Thailand. But we do see Thai and foreign people traveling within the country. Not so many but also not none.
I really invite everyone to get familiar with laws in Thailand and with all the details of the situation before taking sides.