The case against James Christensen, a 44 year old Dane, starts today Tuesday in Langsuan in the province of Chumporn.
James sister Eva Behring who hasn’t seen his brother for 17 years has arrived in Thailand to support him during the case.
James was arrested February 2005. He was charged with arson but has not been to court until now.
A dispute with neighbours started the case. James, a long time citizen of Langsuan were feeding and taking in stray dogs at his rented house on a quiet street. As the cocks at a nearby fighting cock farm started to disappear James was blamed for not being able to control his dogs.
James had to pay compensation to the chicken farm when dead chickens were found in the area. The increasing amounts of money demanded by the farm resulted in james filing a complaint with the local police. After the complaint the dogs started dying by rat poison.
According to the Thai police it should have been an act of revenge when james set fire on the chicken farm 15 of February 2005.
James, who pleads not guilty, was arrested and during his fifteen months ordeal in prison six of them in isolation. This resulted in breakdowns where James was admitted to hospital. The Dane has furthermore lost 25 kilos and several teethes as a result of lack of C-vitamins.
On top of this he was betrayed by an employee at the Danish embassy who stole all his saving money from his bank account.
It was not until the Danish newspaper BT made the story public that James Christensen was released on June 2. 2006. The mayor of Langsuan bailed him out for approximately 500.000 Baht just a couple of days after the article about James Christensen made headlines in Denmark.
The trial starting today will run for three days and includes several witnesses.
If James Christensen is found guilty he will face up to lifetime in Thai prison.
