Harry Nicolaides

Imprisonment, trial, sentence On 31 August 2008, Nicolaides was arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport while preparing to board a plane to Australia, apparently unaware of a March arrest warrant.

Nicolaides later described the harsh conditions in the Bangkok Remand Prison, relating that he had met the suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout and the Canadian child molester Christopher Neil while incarcerated.

Offending text The passage in question was from Nicolaides's 2005 self-published novel, Verisimilitude. Is the truth, the truth? which sold seven copies. The paragraph which resulted in his imprisonment discusses the personal life of a fictional prince:

"From King Rama to the Crown Prince, the nobility was renowned for their romantic entanglements and intrigues. The Crown Prince had many wives major and minor with a coterie of concubines for entertainment. One of his recent wives was exiled with her entire family, including a son they conceived together, for an undisclosed indiscretion. He subsequently remarried with another woman and fathered another child. It was rumoured that if the prince fell in love with one of his minor wives and she betrayed him, she and her family would disappear with their name, familial lineage and all vestiges of their existence expunged forever."

Many Western media outlets, including CNN, refused to publish the substance of the allegation for fear of reprisals against their staff.

Royal pardon Nicolaides' lawyers were pressing for a royal pardon, an effort supported by the Australian government. An official at the Thai Embassy in Canberra commented in January 2009 that foreigners convicted under this law usually get pardoned and deported.

On 21 February 2009, Nicolaides received a royal pardon and returned to Melbourne.

On his initial release, he had been taken to the Australian embassy in Bangkok and given clean clothes prior to the flight home. Minutes before boarding the flight he learned his mother had suffered a stroke two weeks prior and had lost the ability to speak. "I'm angry and frustrated and perplexed at my treatment," Nicolaides said. "I'm tired and exhausted and I've got a mother to go and see who's lost the power of speech." Nicolaides plans to write a book about the ordeal.