30-year sentence for insulting monarch
Print Edition
A THAI man was jailed for 30 years yesterday for “insulting” the monarchy on Facebook, in one of the toughest known sentences passed under the kingdom’s lese majeste law.
Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 87, is protected by one of the world’s strictest royal defamation rules under which anyone convicted of insulting the king, queen, heir or regent faces up to 15 years in prison on each count.
Yesterday, Bangkok’s Military Court found Pongsak Sriboonpeng, 48, guilty of posting messages and pictures defaming the monarchy in six posts.
He was sentenced to 10 years on each count with the 60-year jail term halved after he pleaded guilty, his lawyer Sasinan Thamnithinan said.
“It’s broken the record,” she said about the severe jail term, adding that because Pongsak was arrested while Thailand was still under martial law there was no right to appeal the sentence passed by the military court.
Lese majeste convictions have surged since generals seized power from an elected government in May 2014.
According to iLaw, a local rights group that monitors such cases, there were two ongoing prosecutions for royal defamation before the coup. Now that number is at least 56.
Critics say it has been used against political enemies of the royalist elite and their military allies and targets those opposed to the coup.
In another conviction this week, a military court in the northern province of Chiang Rai sentenced a man with a history of mental illness to five years in jail for lese majeste.
Samak Pantay, 48, was found guilty on Thursday of slashing a portrait of the king and queen in July last year.
Thailand’s ruling military replaced martial law with new powers in April retaining much of the same authority.
But under the new orders civilians can appeal to a higher tribunal for lese majeste crimes, though are still tried by a military court.
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