A Thai court on Tuesday sentenced a former official to a record prison sentence of 43 years and six months for violating the country’s strict law on insults or defamation. the monarchy, the lawyers said. The Bangkok criminal court found the woman guilty of 29 offenses of violating the country’s major injuries law by posting audio clips on Facebook and YouTube with comments that were considered critical of the monarchy, the Thai Lawyers group said. for Human Rights.
The court initially announced his sentence as 87 years old, but cut it in half because he pleaded guilty to the crimes, the group said.
/ AP
The sentence, which comes amid an ongoing protest movement that has seen unprecedented public criticism of the monarchy, was quickly condemned by rights groups.
“Today’s court verdict is shocking and sends a startling signal that not only will criticism of the monarchy be tolerated, but it will also be severely punished,” said Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Violation of Thailand’s lese majeste law, widely known as Article 112, is punishable by three to 15 years in prison per commission. The law is controversial not only because it has been used to punish things as simple as liking a post on Facebook, but also because anyone, not just the royal family or authorities, can file a complaint that can link the defendant in legal proceedings for years.
During the last 15 years of political unrest in Thailand, the law has been used frequently as a political weapon and also in personal revenge. Still, real public criticism of the monarchy had been extremely rare until recently.
That changed last year, when young protesters calling for democratic reforms it also called for reform of the monarchy, which many Thais have long regarded as an almost sacred institution. Protesters have said the institution is inexplicable and has too much power in what is supposed to be a democratic constitutional monarchy.
Authorities initially released much of the comments and criticism without charge, but since November they have detained about 50 people and charged them with major injury.
Sunai said Tuesday’s ruling was probably intended to send a message.
“It can be seen that the Thai authorities are using persecution for major injuries as a measure of last resort in response to the youth-led democratic uprising that seeks to curb the king’s powers and keep him within the confines of the constitutional government. Thailand’s political tensions will now go from bad to worse, ”he said.
After King Maha Vajralongkorn assumed the throne in 2016 after the death of his father, he informed the government that he did not want the law of leses majesties to be used. But as protests grew last year and criticism of the monarchy intensified, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha warned that the line had been crossed and that the law would be enforced.
The protest movement has lost strength since the arrests and since new restrictions were applied to public meetings after an increase in coronavirus cases.
Thai human rights lawyers identified the woman convicted on Tuesday only by her name Anchan and said she was about 60 years old.
His case dates back to six years ago, when anti-establishment sentiment grew after a 2014 military coup led by Prayuth. She was jailed from January 2015 to November 2018.
He denied the charges when his case was first heard in a military court, where major injury offenses were prosecuted for a period after the coup. When his case was taken to the criminal court, he pleaded guilty in the hope that the court would have sympathy for his actions, because he had only shared the audio, had not published or commented on it, he said on Tuesday to local media on his arrival in court. .
“I thought it was nothing. There were so many people who shared this content and listened to it. The man (who created the content) did it for so many years,” Anchan said. “So I didn’t really think about it and I had too much confidence and I wasn’t careful enough to realize it wasn’t appropriate.”
She said she had worked as a civil servant for 40 years and was arrested a year before retirement and, with a conviction, would lose her pension.
What is previously believed to be the longest major major injury sentence was handed down in 2017, when a military court sentenced a man to 35 years in prison for posts on social media deemed defamatory of the monarchy. The man, a salesman, had initially been sentenced to 70 years, but his sentence was halved after pleading guilty.