Activist Andy Hall is back in court to fight another defamation case brought by Natural Fruit Co, a Prachuap Kiri Khan company he accused of human rights violations. It is the second case of four brought by the firm against the British activist stemming from a report he wrote about alleged human rights violations committed by the firm against its migrant workers. The Bangkok South Criminal Court yesterday heard the first of six witnesses presented by the company. Mr Hall is facing legal action for a report he wrote for rights watchdog Finnwatch, ''Cheap has a High Price'' released on Jan 21, 2013 at the Foreign Correspondent's Club of Thailand. It accused Natural Fruit Co, a Prachuap Khiri Khan-based pineapple concentrate juice producer, of treating its migrant workers unfairly. A senior management member of the firm, Kachin Kongneeyavanich, told the court the report's claims were untrue and his company did not receive any notification from Finnwatch seeking comment on its claims. Hall's lawyer asked Mr Kachin about a labour audit report conducted by Thai labour officials after the Finnwatch report went public, which portrayed several incidents of alleged malpractice against the migrants. Mr Kachin said he does not know what information the factory manager provided to the labour officials. The court has called Mr Kachin back for cross-examination on March 16. Natural Fruit has filed defamation charges against the activist under the Criminal Code and the Computer Crime Act. The civil suit demanding 300 million baht compensation was temporarily ejected from the Nakhon Pathom Provincial Court as judges wanted to wait until the result of a related action before the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court was known. In July 2013, the Prakanong Provincial Court dismissed a defamation case against Mr Hall regarding an interview he gave the news network Al Jazeera in April 2013 about the report. Natural Fruit and public prosecutors, co-plaintiffs in the case, appealed to the court in October last year. "We are disappointed to see that Natural Fruit is not going to stop its judicial harassment. The company continues to try its best to cause damage and inconvenience to Andy Hall and Finnwatch by keeping these cases going," said Sonja Vartiala, executive director of Finnwatch. UPDATE: 20/ 07/ 2015 Thai PM urged to intervene in case against British activist Almost 30 international NGOs and trade unions have appealed to Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to intervene in lawsuits facing British activist Andy Hall, who campaigns for migrant workers' rights. The final hearing of a second defamation suit he faces will be held today. The court will decide whether to indict Mr Hall. If the court decides in favour of indictment, Mr Hall will be arrested and detained pending bail. He would then face a trial and, if found guilty and convicted, up to seven years in prison. The 29 organisations said they were disappointed to learn the attorney-general is trying to appeal against the dismissal of the defamation and computer crimes case against Mr Hall. In October, Phra Khanong Provincial Court dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed against Mr Hall by Natural Fruit, a fruit-processing company in Prachuap Khiri Khan. Twenty-nine organisations led by FinnWatch have undersigned the appeal to the premier expressing concern about the upcoming trial. "Thailand is continuing to harass a human rights defender despite a court decision and its obligation to uphold freedom of speech," the group said. According to the group, this was not in line with the 2014 TIP report recommendation that "Thailand cease prosecuting criminal defamation cases against researchers or journalists who report on human trafficking, and recognise the valuable role of NGOs and workers' organisations in uncovering the nature and scope of human trafficking in Thailand." Natural Fruit has filed multiple criminal and civil cases against Mr Hall since February 2013 as a result of his contribution to a FinnWatch report that accused the company of serious human rights violations, based on workers' interviews. UPDATE: 22/ 09/ 2015 Case thrown out against activist Andy Hall The Appeal Court on Friday upheld last year's lower-court dismissal of defamation charges against migrant-rights activist Andy Hall over a press interview he conducted in Burma, saying neither state prosecutors nor a pineapple-processing company had grounds to sue in Thailand. The court unanimously ruled that neither the Office of the Attorney General nor Natural Fruit had a legal right to prosecute Mr Hall as his allegedly defamatory remarks were made during an Al-Jazeera network interview outside the kingdom. The court also ruled that police should not have even investigated the interview and that the case was not appealable to the Supreme Court. "Al-Jazeera interview defamation case officially closed," Mr Hall tweeted following the decision Friday. UPDATE: 20 September 2016 British activist Andy Hall was found guilty of criminal defamation and breaching cyber crime laws and given a three-year suspended jail sentence over a report on labour abuse in the fruit canning sector, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Hall, who lives in Thailand, has faced a cascade of legal actions for co-authoring a 2013 report on a Natural Fruit factory, alleging poor working conditions, low wages and child labour. Natural Fruit, a major supplier to the European drink market, brought the action against Hall. The activist "was found guilty of defamation and under the Computer Crimes Act... the court sentenced him to four years in jail, reduced to three," his lawyer Nakhon Chomphuchat told AFP after the verdict. The sentence was suspended he said. The contentious report, "Cheap Has a High Price", was published by the Finnish civil rights group Finnwatch. It alleged serious mistreatment of the company's mainly migrant labour force. Natural Fruit denied the allegations in the report and has also launched a civil case seeking US$10 million in damages. Hall, who said he will appeal the judgement, stands by his research and has accused the company of trying to detract from the report's damning findings through legal action. Speaking after the trial on Tuesday, Hall said the verdict "shows people are not free or at liberty to do this kind of research". "There's a huge problem with human trafficking in Thailand. There's a huge problem with labour exploitation," added the activist, who in recent years has also drawn attention to abuses in Thailand's shady fishing and poultry sectors. The president of Natural Fruit was in unforgiving mood after the ruling. "No foreigner should think they have power above Thai sovereignty," said company president Wirat Piyapornpaiboon, accusing Hall of "violating his rights". Hall was acquitted by a court last year on a separate defamation charge pursued by the Oddice of the Attorney-General. Finnwatch argue that their organisation should have been sued if Natural Fruit disagreed with their report, rather than going after Hall personally. "We are shocked by today's verdict. The report was authored and published by Finnwatch; we take full responsibility for it. Andy has been made a scapegoat in order to stiffle other voices that speak out legitimately in support of migrant worker rights," said Sonja Vartiala, executive director of Finnwatch. "This is a sad day for freedom of expression in Thailand. We fear that many other human rights defenders and victims of company abuse will be scared to silence by this ruling," Ms Vartiala said. Update: On 15 January 2018 Thailand Supreme Court orders immediate payment of the August 1st 2016 1.7 million baht Lopburi Department of Labour Protection & Welfare (DLPW) compensation order to 14 former Thammakaset farm workers from Myanmar