BANGKOK — A rights activist hit with almost a decade of lawsuits after raising concerns about labor conditions at a Thai pineapple company received a court decision Tuesday clearing him in the final case against him. The company later launched a 300-million-baht ($9.6 million) civil defamation case but dropped the case before it went to trial last year. Hall was informed Tuesday of the Thai Supreme Court’s verdict in the final case, over separate civil defamation charges relating to a 2013 interview he gave to the news organization Al Jazeera. The court found Hall not guilty and overturned a lower court’s decision that he should pay 10 million baht compensation to the company. Human rights groups say powerful businesses routinely bring defamation cases against activists in Thailand to silence investigations into working conditions.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer May 11, 2021 12:11 UTC