The woman presented herself at Sakoo Police Station on Saturday (Feb 15) to acknowledge the charge and for questioning, confirmed Phuket Vice Governor Supoj Rotreuang Na Nongkhai, who was present at the police station on Saturday.
Also present for the questioning were Sakoo Police Chief Col Kaken Nikrahatchai, Capt Sira Lertthaisong and Nirut Krabuanrat, the Legal and Human Resources Department Director for Airports of Thailand’s management team at Phuket International Airport (AoT Phuket).
Vice Governor Supoj explained that Sakoo Police had issued a summons for the woman to present herself for questioning and to formally inform her of the charge.
The woman’s actual name was not identified in the report confirming the woman had presented herself, though the post in question was uploaded onto Facebook by “Konnika Jampaburee” on Monday (Jan 27).
The post showed a photo of a person covered with a white sheet being wheeled out of the airport and loaded into an ambulance along with the words in Thai, “One death at Phuket International Airport #Chinese”.
Dr Sutsinee Sakswut, the airport doctor on duty that day confirmed to The Phuket News that nobody had died from the “Wuhan flu” at the airport. “The post is wrong,” she said.
A female tourist had suffered a “mini stroke” in the Arrival Hall at the International Terminal and had been taken to Bangkok Hospital Phuket, Dr Sutsinee explained, adding that the tourist was discharged from the hospital care the next day. (See story here.)
Vice Governor Supoj confirmed on (Jan 31) that AoT Phuket had filed a formal complaint with police to press charges under the Computer Crimes Act for the post.
Vice Governor Supoj pointed out that under Section 14 (1) of the Computer Crimes Act it is illegal to for any person to commit an act “that involves import to a computer system of forged computer data, either in whole or in part, or false computer data, in a manner that is likely to cause damage to that third party or the public”.
If found guilty, perpetrators may face up to five years in prison or a fine of up to B100,000, or both, he added. (See story here.)
“Before posting any information on social media, please check and prove that the information is correct and think about the following impact. In this case, it damaged the image of Phuket a lot, so we will take serious action against those who post fake news and violate the laws,” Vice Governor Supoj said yesterday.
The woman told the Vice Governor yesterday that she was sorry for what she did without checking if her post was true or not.
She had already deleted the post, the woman confirmed.
The woman also said, “Before posting or sharing anything online, please check if it is true or not. I won’t do this again, and I will take this as a lesson.”