Spalding human rights defender has threat of £227k fine lifted

The final verdict in a long-running court case involving a Spalding human rights defender was announced this week.

Thailand’s Supreme Court dismissed lower court rulings that Andy Hall was guilty of defaming exporter Natural Fruit Company. He had previously been ordered to pay around £227,000 in damages.

The court also ruled that his publication of interviews concerning migrant worker abuse was accurate.

The charges in Tuesday’s case related to an interview Andy gave to Al-Jazeera English in 2013 in the wake of a Finnwatch report on working conditions at Natural Fruit Ltd’s pineapple company. A related criminal case was dismissed by Thailand’s Supreme Court in 2016.

Finnwatch investigates human rights and climate impacts of businesses around the world.

“I welcome today’s ruling. But after years of ongoing judicial harassment that has taken a heavy toll on me, my family and colleagues, this is not a victory. My activism for over a decade in Thailand was intended only to promote and uphold the fundamental rights of millions of migrant workers in this country,” he said.

“These workers continue to find themselves without a voice in high-risk situations of forced labour and subject to systemic human and labour rights violations,” he added.

A total of four cases were filed by Natural Fruit and three went to the Supreme Court which cleared him of all charges.

In October last year the company withdrew a civil defamation and damages claim after the Supreme Court acquitted Andy. He left Thailand in 2016 but continues to work on migrant workers’ rights.

A former pupil at Spalding Grammar School, Andy was first convicted by a lower court in Thailand in 2016 and given a suspended jail sentence.

On a visit to his parents in the town, he said that things had improved in the factory since his 2013 report.