Harry Nicolaides, the Australian writer arrested on a charge of insulting Thailand's royal family, has described his appalling prison conditions and his fear of contracting tuberculosis, and pleaded to be allowed to apologise.

"I want to immediately apologise to the royal family for my reckless choice of words," Nicolaides said from Bangkok Remand Prison.

Nicolaides said he entered the prison a healthy man, but he now had swollen lymph glands, chest pains, constipation and stomach cramps and could not eat.

Almost all the other inmates in his cell were coughing and wheezing, he said. "There is a rumour going around that some of them will be transferred to the tuberculosis ward which is terribly overcrowded," he said.

He feared his condition was deteriorating so quickly he would be vulnerable to tuberculosis infection.


Full story News.com.au (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24302851-2,00.html)