"Migrant Worker Whistleblowers Plead Not Guilty to Defaming Chicken Farm", 4 Oct 2017

Fourteen migrant workers pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of defamation brought by a chicken farm they had accused of labor abuses.

Prosecution of the 14 Burmese defendants on charges brought by Thammakaset Farm, which previously supplied poultry to agricultural conglomerate Betagro, began after they complained to the National Human Rights Commission that they were being forced to work and deprived of their rights…

They entered their pleas today at the Don Mueang Court two weeks after the Supreme Court ordered the company to pay their back wages.

Thammakaset said the complaints were without merit and filed suit alleging the 14 migrant workers had made false and defamatory statements.

Through an interpreter today, all denied the charges against them, which human rights groups say were brought by the farm to silence them for blowing the whistle…