Paul Bullock has done some homework, including finding a PDF copy of the novel concerned, and some other examples of Nicolaides’ writing; amongst other things, the first couple of pages of Verisimilitude make abundantly clear why it was self-published. But mediocre writing is not a crime. Nor should writing about the Thai monarchy in insufficiently reverential tones. As Paul puts it:

In the end it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if he is a good writer or not, it doesn’t matter what kind of guy he is, it doesn’t even matter whether he deliberately or recklessly got himself into this mess. What matters at the moment is that a man is in prison for nothing more than exercising free speech and making a poor choice of travel destination, and at the moment he seems to be getting less help from our government than a certain group of convicted drug traffickers in Indonesia.

Leaving aside the broader goal of convincing the Thai government to abandon its lese majeste laws (Thailand has more pressing governance problems at the moment), surely the realpolitik approach to getting Nicolaides out of jail was a deal where, first, he was let out on bail. Then, a quick guilty plea should have led to an equally quick royal pardon and an even quicker deportation; the Thais keep face and Nicolaides gets to work on his writing in some other location with more hospitable laws. But that didn’t happen. And I’m still left wondering why it didn’t.

The English organization PEN has details on where to write letters to the Thai government. Personally, I suspect adverse press in Western countries may be more effective, as Thailand’s tourist industry is already under pressure due to the global economic slowdown and the political instability (which stranded hundreds of Australians). Additional bad publicity is probably the last thing they need right now.