I came across this article and found it interesting, as I had never heard of seasteading. I am not sure why they could be possibly facing the death penalty. Can someone explain? Here is the article:

BANGKOK — The Thai navy on Saturday boarded the floating cabin of a fugitive U.S. bitcoin trader and his Thai girlfriend, both prominent members of the "seasteading" movement who possibly face the death sentence for setting up their offshore home.

Thai authorities have revoked the visa of American citizen Chad Elwartowski and have charged him and his partner, Supranee Thepdet, with violating Thai sovereignty by raising a small cabin on top of a weighted spar 14 nautical miles off the west-coast of the Thai island of Phuket — a popular holiday destination.

The cabin has been promoted as "the world's first seastead" by the group Ocean Builders, part of a movement in tech and libertarian circles to build floating communities beyond the bounds of nations as a way to explore alternative societies and governments.

"I was free for a moment. Probably the freest person in the world," Elwartowski posted on his Facebook on April 13, days before the Thai navy raided his floating home.

Elwartowski, 46, and Supranee, whose Facebook page describes her as a "Bitcoin expert, Trader, Chef, seastead Pioneer," apparently fled after a surveillance plane flew over the cabin the previous day.

The Royal Thai Navy task force had planned on Saturday to seize the structure and tow it back to shore for use as evidence, but by the afternoon it was still studying how to move it without destroying it, the navy said.

In a video posted last month detailing the raising of the floating home, Elwartowski said 20 more similar houses would be up for sale to form a community.

Elwartowski and Ocean Builders say the spar was in international waters and beyond Thailand's jurisdiction. Thai authorities say the structure is in its 200-mile exclusive economic zone and therefore a violation of its sovereignty.



The navy said they have evidence that the floating home was built in a private boatyard in Phuket and said the couple wanted to establish a "permanent settlement at sea beyond the sovereignty of nations by using a legal loophole".

It said the action "reveals the intention of disobeying the laws of Thailand as a littoral state and could lead to a creation of a new state within Thailand's territorial waters... undermining Thailand's national security as well as economic and social interests of maritime nations."

In an email reply to Reuters, Elwartowski referred all questions to the Seasteading Institute and pointed to online statements from the Ocean Builders website.

The group said that the pair, both active bitcoin investors, did not build, invest in or design the floating home themselves but were "volunteers excited about the prospect of living free," documenting their lives as "pioneer seasteaders" off the coast of Phuket.

The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok told Reuters that Elwartowski had engaged a lawyer and was being provided with appropriate assistance.

According to Ocean Builders, the concept of "seasteading" has been discussed for years but the cabin Elwartowski and Supranee lived on was the first attempt at living in what it described as international waters.

Other groups, such as the Seasteading Institute, which was originally backed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, have sought to build floating cities with the cooperation of host nations.

LINK: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/w...boards-cabin-n996666

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ZSMICHAEL,

Looks like they erred when they decided to do this in Thai territorial waters.
And is your Seastead cyclone / storm proof? How about a Tsunami?

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Looks like they erred when they decided to do this in Thai territorial waters.
And is your Seastead cyclone / storm proof? How about a Tsunami?

It's actually in the EEZ(exclusive economic zone), or what they claim it to be. EEZ extends 200 NM out from the shore vs Thai territorial waters which extend 12 NM, this thing was built 14 miles out.

Here's how it's defined:

quote:

An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is a sea zone prescribed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea over which a state has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind.[1] It stretches from the baseline out to 200 nautical miles (nmi) from its coast. In colloquial usage, the term may include the continental shelf. The term does not include either the territorial sea or the continental shelf beyond the 200 nmi limit. The difference between the territorial sea and the exclusive economic zone is that the first confers full sovereignty over the waters, whereas the second is merely a "sovereign right" which refers to the coastal state's rights below the surface of the sea. The surface waters, as can be seen in the map, are international waters.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclusive_economic_zone


It's part of the "United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea", which BTW, the US is a non-party/signatory. Not that US interests matter in this case.

Sovereign citizen at sea bullshit.

How long before:

Sounds like the Thai Government desired to "create joinder" with the seasteading pioneers!

Your title is too vague. Please describe the article, or actually use its title.

Thailand doesn't mess around. Apparently one can be put to death for not standing for the national anthem.

Given China's recent behavior in building up atolls, it's not surprising that Thailand would get a little flexible in defining its marine rights - and in terms of squashing any attempts by anyone else to do the same.

"Were not navigating, were drifting."

"Are we being seatained?

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
"Were not navigating, were drifting."

"Are we being seatained?

Thanks, I had to clean out my keyboard.

Looking at the website for The Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, I can't find anything that would cause the invocation of the death penalty without really twisting up the offense.

https://www.deathpenaltyworldw...cfm?country=Thailand

If one believes the author Michael Yon, who lives there now, the article is a load of rubbish generated to stir up anti Thai government feelings. He has written extensively about a number of discredited and disgraced Western reporters who have made it their life to stir up trouble there. His opinion is that the Thais are more likely to question them, and then escort them to the airport with a firm invitation to never come back.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Looks like they erred when they decided to do this in Thai territorial waters.
And is your Seastead cyclone / storm proof? How about a Tsunami?

It looks like the builder's concept is a small-scale offshore oil platform:

https://ocean.builders/spar-platform/

Videos of the process of setting up the platform:

https://ocean.builders/videos/



.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
Thailand doesn't mess around. Apparently one can be put to death for not standing for the national anthem.

Sounds like we should have some NFL games over there!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Ha!! Good one!!!

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Looks like they erred when they decided to do this in Thai territorial waters.
And is your Seastead cyclone / storm proof? How about a Tsunami?

If you are in deep water, you are unlikely to even notice that a tsunami has passed by you.

Without a shallow seafloor to push the wave up it isn't very tall (maybe 3 feet), and even though the wave moves very fast (500 miles per hour is the usual figure quoted), it is also very, very long (wavelength on the order of 100 miles), so the rise and fall happens very slowly - so slowly that is isn't really perceptable and poses no danger. A 3 foot rise and fall that takes 10 minutes to happen is not a big deal.

Seasteading sounds like a great idea, until you realize you are stateless and don't have a navy to defend yourself.

If they are 14 miles from Thai territory how can Thailand charge or prosecute them ? God Bless

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
Thailand doesn't mess around. Apparently one can be put to death for not standing for the national anthem.

Sounds like we should have some NFL games over there!

+1!

God, what a bunch of morons. Just watch the videos that he has put up.

And the coverage of it is stupid, too. Death penalty, my ass. The sovereignty issue is one of treason under the Thai Criminal Code, and treason can be punished by up to life in prison, or death. That doesn't mean that it has to be death. Thailand is not particularly bloodthirsty, and they haven't executed many people. Most death penalty cases in Thailand are for drugs or aggravated murder. These guys don't even come close to that level of transgression. The suggestion above that 'ol Chad would be escorted to the airport, sent home and told not to come back is likely on target.

Then there's the 14 mile thing. First, Thailand claims a 12 NM territorial sea, then a 12 NM Contiguous Zone beyond that. Contiguous Zone means that Thailand can regulate with respect to "infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations within its territory or territorial sea". All of this lies withing Thailand's 200 NM exclusive economic zone. The 200 NM EEZ may be exploited economically solely by Thailand, unless it permits others to benefit. Thailand is also entitled to regulate any potential damage to the ecology of the EEZ, any act that may prevent the economic exploitation of the area, or any activity that impedes or endangers navigation in the area.

In practical terms, all of this means that Thailand can prevent the creation of an independent community that claims to be outside of the laws of any jurisdiction, when that community lies within these areas that are within Thailand's jurisdiction.

Finally, let's just say these sea sovereign nutcases are right, and they are beyond any jurisdiction. If there are truly no laws to be followed, then might makes right, and Thailand can do what ever the hell they want to do, including use the seastead for gunnery practice.

Nations typically have no tolerance for acts that challenge their ability to secure their national interests, or that impinge on their rights and privileges, and this "community" is a direct challenge to Thailand, and its ability to control its locality.

I don't think the US would look too kindly on a seastead 14 miles from Norfolk, VA, just outside of DC, and just off a major US naval base, populated by libertarian minded Iranians or Russians.

If you want to go create a new nation, or be stateless, it's best to go someplace where no one else with a military and the will to use it claims any rights.

Funny how these people claim sovereign status until they get in trouble, then they run to the government for help.