Latest news with #GlobalReach
NBC News
2 days ago
- Politics
- NBC News
Thailand drops royal insult case against American academic
BANGKOK — A royal insult prosecution against an American scholar in Thailand that raised concerns in the U.S. government has been dropped, his lawyer said Thursday, as authorities confirmed the academic had left the country. Paul Chambers, 58, a political science lecturer, had been in legal limbo since his arrest last month on a lese-majeste charge, which led to the loss of his job, his work visa and the seizure of his passport. 'I am relieved that this situation has been resolved. I have always had great respect for the Thai royal family and anyone who knows me understands that these charges were always based on false allegations by unnamed parties in the military,' Chambers said in a statement issued by Global Reach, a non-profit dedicated to freeing Americans held abroad that worked with his family. Chambers, who first came to Thailand as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1993, said he was returning to the U.S. but 'will maintain my many friendships with the people of Thailand.' Thailand has one of the world's harshest lese-majeste laws, setting jail terms of up to 15 years for anyone convicted of defaming, insulting or threatening King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his close family. The prosecutor earlier this month dropped the case against Chambers but police appealed that decision. The attorney-general overruled the appeal earlier this week, said Chambers' lawyer, Wannaphat Jenroumjit. 'The case is now concluded,' she said, adding the legal team was appealing the revocation of his work visa. The U.S. State Department had expressed alarm at the arrest of Chambers, saying the case 'reinforces our longstanding concerns about the use of lese-majeste laws in Thailand.' The charges against him, which came after a complaint by the royalist army, had stemmed from a blurb for an online academic seminar at which he was a speaker, according to his lawyers. The blurb was posted last year on the website of a research institute based outside Thailand. Thailand's constitution enshrines the king in a position of 'revered worship' and royalists regard the palace as sacrosanct. A party that won the 2023 election was dissolved last year over its campaign to amend the lese-majeste law, under which more than 280 people have been charged since 2020, according to the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights legal aid group, which also represented Chambers. Thai immigration police confirmed Chambers' passport had been returned to him and that he had left the country earlier on Thursday. 'The case is closed as the attorney-general decided to drop it,' Police Major General Sarawut Khonyai, a commander of immigration police in northern Thailand, told Reuters.
UPI
3 days ago
- Politics
- UPI
American academic returning to U.S. after Thai charges dropped
Thai Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, seen here as crown prince in 2016. An American academic has been permitted to lave the country after prosecutors decided against prosecuting him on charges of insulting the monarchy. File Photo by Rungroj Yongrit/European Pressphoto Agency May 30 (UPI) -- An American academic facing up to 15 years in a Thai prison on allegations of insulting the monarchy has been permitted to leave the country, according to a nonprofit that advocates for Americans imprisoned abroad. Global Reach told UPI in an emailed statement that Paul Chambers was permitted to leave Thailand on Thursday after resolving what it called "false" lese-majeste charges. "I am relieved that this situation has been resolved," Chambers said in a statement. "I have always had great respect for the Thai royal family, and anyone who knows me understands that these charges were always based on false allegations by unnamed parties in the military." Chambers, a Thai studies scholar and lecturer at Thailand's Naresuan University, was arrested and charged by Thai authorities in April following a complaint filed against him by the military over an October online post promoting a webinar that he was to participate in. The English-language post was published on the website of Singapore's ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. The academic webinar was on Thai studies, and Chambers, a leading expert on the Thai military and Southeast Asian politics, gave a talk about the Thai military. Chambers was not involved in the post's creation. According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, Chambers was allowed to leave the country after the Attorney General's Office announced Wednesday that prosecutors decided not to continue the case against the American. Prosecutors made the decision in early May, but the attorney general needed to affirm the decision. Chambers was originally detained April 9, but was later permitted to leave police custody and was required to wear an ankle monitor and surrender his U.S. passport and work visa, Global Reach said. Following his arrest, the U.S. State Department issued a statement saying it was monitoring Chambers' situation while condemning the controversial lese-majeste law. Kieran Ramsey, who worked with Chambers on behalf of Global Reach, praised the United States for its response to the case, saying, "This was one of the best responses I have ever seen from the U.S. government." According to Global Reach, Chambers will return to Oklahoma to see his family and will work from the United States. More than 270 people have been detained, prosecuted and punished under the lese-majeste laws since 2020, according to an expert panel from United Nations that said such laws "have no place in a democratic country."
AsiaOne
3 days ago
- Politics
- AsiaOne
Thailand drops royal insult case against American academic, Asia News
BANGKOK — A royal insult prosecution against an American scholar in Thailand that raised concerns in the US government has been dropped, his lawyer said on Thursday (May 29), as authorities confirmed the academic had left the country. Paul Chambers, 58, a political science lecturer, had been in legal limbo since his arrest last month on a lese-majeste charge, which led to the loss of his job, his work visa and the seizure of his passport. "I am relieved that this situation has been resolved. I have always had great respect for the Thai royal family and anyone who knows me understands that these charges were always based on false allegations by unnamed parties in the military," Chambers said in a statement issued by Global Reach, a non-profit dedicated to freeing Americans held abroad that worked with his family. Chambers, who first came to Thailand as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1993, said he was returning to the US but "will maintain my many friendships with the people of Thailand." Thailand has one of the world's harshest lese-majeste laws, setting jail terms of up to 15 years for anyone convicted of defaming, insulting or threatening King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his close family. The prosecutor earlier this month dropped the case against Chambers but police appealed that decision. The attorney-general overruled the appeal earlier this week, said Chambers' lawyer, Wannaphat Jenroumjit. "The case is now concluded," she said, adding the legal team was appealing the revocation of his work visa. The US State Department had expressed alarm at the arrest of Chambers, saying the case "reinforces our longstanding concerns about the use of lese-majeste laws in Thailand". The charges against him, which came after a complaint by the royalist army, had stemmed from a blurb for an online academic seminar at which he was a speaker, according to his lawyers. The blurb was posted last year on the website of a research institute based outside of Thailand. Thailand's constitution enshrines the king in a position of "revered worship" and royalists regard the palace as sacrosanct. A party that won the 2023 election was dissolved last year over its campaign to amend the lese-majeste law, under which more than 280 people have been charged since 2020, according to the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights legal aid group, which also represented Chambers. Thai immigration police confirmed Chambers' passport had been returned to him and that he had left the country earlier on Thursday. "The case is closed as the attorney-general decided to drop it," Police Major General Sarawut Khonyai, a commander of immigration police in northern Thailand, told Reuters. [[nid:716627]]
Time of India
02-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Australia may turn less welcoming to international students
Live Events With both major political parties signalling tougher stances on immigration and international education, the outcome of the electoral dead heat Down Under will likely shape decisions for thousands of Indian students willing to trade hemispheres for a brighter future, according to study abroad experts.'All eyes are on the federal elections in Australia,' said Ravi Lochan Singh, managing director of Global Reach, a study abroad consultancy based out of Australia. 'Immigration and international student numbers are a big discussion point. Both key parties are of the view that international arrival numbers, in terms of migrants, need to be controlled.'Australia is holding general elections on Saturday. The current Labor government's push for tighter controls and caps on the intake of international students and the opposition Liberal's hard-line rhetoric around a housing crisis, visa fees and more stringent caps have sent chills through the international education sector.(Join our ETNRI WhatsApp channel for all the latest updates)'There's definitely growing unease,' said Adarsh Khandelwal, founder of study abroad platform Collegify. '(Leader of opposition) Peter Dutton's comments linking international students to the housing crisis really struck a nerve. Add to that proposed cap on student enrolments and sharp visa fee hikes, and the message to students is starting to feel more exclusionary than welcoming.'He points to the 2025 student enrolment cap, the recent visa fee spike (from 710 Australian dollars to 1,600 Australian dollars, with another hike to 2,000 Australian dollars on the horizon), and the risk of mid-course policy changes as causes of anxiety—particularly for students in IT, engineering and nursing who are banking on permanent enrolment cap, proposed to be set at 270,000, was seen as a knee-jerk response by the Labor government after it received flak for allowing the international student population to nearly double under its others watching the political play unfold, the sense of a broader cultural shift is hard to ignore.'There is a rise in right-wing protectionism, isolation, even racism and xenophobia, across the world, particularly in the Western world, which also includes Australia,' said Vinu Warrier, founder of education consultancy EduVelocity. 'It is a crisis where the world is changing rapidly, jobs and careers are changing rapidly, and the first scapegoats are immigrants, and Indians are more visible immigrants when it comes to the volume of international students.'According to the Australian government's Department of Education (DoE), Indians were the second largest student cohort in 2024 at 139,038, behind Chinese students (189,282).'Migration, and students by extension, have become political shorthand for broader concerns—overstretched infrastructure, rising costs and cultural anxieties. Students are an easy target: they're visible, their numbers have grown quickly, and they tie into the migration stats politicians like to cite,' said Khandelwal of the nervousness, the demand story remains intact.'We haven't seen any dip in student housing demand for Australia,' said Saurabh Arora, founder of University Living. 'In fact, our 2025 accommodation leads are higher than last year.'According to his firm's recent report, international students account for nearly 76% of housing demand in cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, underlining their economic footprint in the broader housing and part-time labour market ecosystem. He said: 'When discussions around infrastructure, migration or housing come up, it's natural that such a large and visible group takes the centre stage in the national narrative.'There were 853,045 international students studying in Australia in 2024, up 9% from the year before, as per DoE so, the signals are mixed. 'International students are part of a broader national conversation around migration, infrastructure and housing supply,' said Piyush Kumar, regional director for IDP Education. 'It's not about targeting them per se, but about maintaining a sustainable migration framework.'There has already been a slight dip in application numbers over the past 8-9 months, according to if the political winds shift further, international students, excluded from the ballot, could begin voting with their feet.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
American detained in Belarus is freed
An American detained in Belarus has been freed, a US official told CNN on Wednesday. Youras Ziankovich was arrested in Moscow in 2021 and then was brought to Belarus's capital Minsk, where he was accused of being part of a US-backed coup plot against Belarus' strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko. The US State Department denied any such involvement. There was not a prisoner swap that led to Ziankovich's release, the official said. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the news later on Wednesday, without naming Ziankovich. 'Thanks to @POTUS's leadership, Belarus has released another wrongfully detained U.S. citizen. No president has done so much, so quickly, to keep Americans safe abroad,' Rubio posted on X. According to Global Reach, an organization that advocated for his case, Ziankovich did not have access to US officials until January 2025. 'I knew this day would come. It took 1,480 days, but he survived and is on his way home to me and to America,' Alena Dzenisavets, his wife, said. 'I want to thank President Trump, Secretary Rubio, and Special Envoy Boehler and the SPEHA staff. I also want to express my appreciation to Rep. Morgan Luttrell and the nonprofits Global Reach and the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation for their help advocating for Youras.' This story is breaking and will be updated.
