Update: Andy Hall has since informed us that after the proceedings were put on hold on Sept. 3, translations were "excellent" yesterday.

Court proceedings were put on hold in Thailand yesterday for migrant rights activist Andy Hall, after a judge agreed translation services provided to the campaigner were unsatisfactory.

Hall is currently in the first of three trials brought against him by pineapple processing company Natural Fruit, who are suing him for defamation in relation to allegations over worker abuse in their operations.

Readers can click here for further background on the case.

The British lawyer told www.freshfruitportal.com he could not follow anything in the court on Sept.2, and he was concerned about whether court proceedings complied with the criminal court or not.

When proceedings began on the second day, Hall stood up and complained within 10 minutes. He claimed the judge agreed, suspended proceedings, and agreed to provide a better translator for proceedings today (Sept. 4).

"The night before I didn’t sleep, because they just provided loads and loads of documents last-minute in the Thai language, and the whole night I was trying to read the statements from the first day," Hall said.

"I was so tired and when I got to the court in the morning, I couldn't handle it anymore.

"Then last night when we left the court they gave us a pile of documents about the labor inspection of the factory; these are prosecution documents all about the labor inspections, and most of those documents are handwritten in Thai language."

He said this was against international legal protocols, adding that once again, he did not sleep last night as he tried to translate handwritten documents from the prosecutor's case.

Prior to the trial, several international organizations raised their concerns about whether Hall would get a fair trial. Early red flags are already showing those worries may have been justified.

www.freshfruitportal.com