Thailand has ordered the deportation of Kevin Dimino, the French co-owner of Samui Exotic Park who displayed a Palestinian flag and barred Israeli visitors from the Koh Samui attraction. He is being held at Koh Samui Police Station pending removal to France. Three days before his order was signed, Thailand issued the same order against the Israeli at the centre of the dispute.
Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul signed the order against Dimino on September 7, citing threatening, intimidating and physically abusive behaviour, public nuisance, and conduct creating serious racial and religious division including among tourists. The order says his behaviour was contrary to public order, good morals and public welfare.
The Israeli, Yaacov Ohayon, a real estate developer and sandwich business operator who has lived on the island for years, was ordered out on September 4 and is in custody at Bo Phut Police Station. Thai authorities said he received a suspended 15-day jail sentence and a 5,000 baht fine for causing fear or panic through threats, and that he had sent messages warning that the recipient's life and physical safety were at risk. He was the first foreigner removed under Thailand's new deportation framework. Dimino is the second. The two men are being held at separate stations.
The dispute began in August when an Israeli family said it was refused entry to the park after staff learned where they were from. Dimino told AFP he had hung the Palestinian flag in response to what he described as bad behaviour by some Israeli visitors, and said the move brought him threats online. The park subsequently posted Instagram material showing an Israeli flag marked with a no-entry symbol beside a shooting target and a Palestinian flag. After the confrontation went viral, AFP reported that Dimino responded on social media with overtly antisemitic statements. Ohayon, who lives on the island, went to the park, saw the flag and asked him to take it down. Dimino refused. Video circulated afterwards appearing to show him headbutting Ohayon. The park's operator filed a police complaint alleging that a group of Israeli tourists had repeatedly broken the park's rules and had then harassed her and threatened to burn down her home and the zoo.
The Interior Ministry set out six grounds against Dimino. It says he harassed and swore at the owner and teachers of a local language school; physically assaulted a Turkish national, injuring his leg and threatening him with a folding knife; caused a disturbance and behaved threateningly outside a private business; assaulted a foreign tourist, throwing a sign at him and insulting his family; posted calls on social media for people opposed to certain nationalities to gather at the park for a political and religious protest, which authorities said risked inflaming ethnic and religious tensions; and threatened other passengers during a domestic flight, after which police were notified and he was removed from the aircraft. Koh Samui Provincial Court separately convicted him under the Land Traffic Act and fined him 10,000 baht, reduced to 5,000 after a guilty plea.
Dimino, who has lived in Thailand for around nine years, briefly could not be located after the order was signed. Immigration officers searched for him on September 7 after he was seen driving a BMW at speed to the park, getting out and then disappearing. He reported to Surat Thani Immigration the following day accompanied by his wife and a lawyer, denied that he had gone into hiding and said he would appeal. Officials read him the order and took him into custody.
The appeal was filed on September 11 by his Thai wife, Jindarat Sattayapun, who owns the park. She was accompanied by Akkarawut Kraisrisombat, leader of the Thai Mai Thon group, who said he supports deportation laws but wants the procedure to be clear and workable, and questioned how a man in custody is meant to gather witnesses and evidence within seven days. Jindarat, speaking tearfully after meeting Interior Ministry officials, said the evidence she submitted shows her husband was acting to protect her from threats and harassment by a group of Israelis. Legal observers in Thailand consider a reversal unlikely, since the appeal goes to Anutin, who signed the order in his capacity as interior minister and is also prime minister.
Both orders were issued under the 1956 Deportation Act together with the Prime Minister's Office Regulation on Deportation, which took effect on August 28. Neither man has been confirmed as physically removed.
