A Thai court on Tuesday sentenced a former civil servant to a record sentence of 43 years and six months for violating the country’s strict law on insult or defamation. monarchy, said the lawyers. The Bangkok Criminal Court found the woman guilty of 29 counts of violating major laws in the country for posting audio videos on Facebook and YouTube with comments considered critical of the monarchy, the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights group said.
The court initially announced its 87-year sentence, but cut it in half because he pleaded guilty to 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 signal to freeze the spine that not only will criticism of the monarchy not be tolerated, but it will also be severely punished,” said Sunai Phasuk, lead researcher on the Human group. Rights Watch.
Violation of Thailand’s major law – widely known as Article 112 – is punishable by three to 15 years in prison each. The law is controversial not only because it was used to punish things as simple as liking a Facebook post, but also because anyone – not just royalty or authorities – can file a complaint that can link the accused to legal proceedings for years.
In the last 15 years of political unrest in Thailand, the law has been frequently used as a political weapon, as well as in personal sales. However, real public criticism of the monarchy had until recently been extremely rare.
That has changed in the last year, when young protesters calling for democratic reforms it also launched calls for reform of the monarchy, which has long been considered an almost sacred institution by many Thais. Protesters said the institution was irresponsible and had too much power in what was supposed to be a democratic constitutional monarchy.
Authorities initially left much of the comments and criticism unaccused, but since November have arrested about 50 people and charged them with major injury.
Sunai said Tuesday’s sentence is likely to send a message.
“It can be seen that the Thai authorities are using the criminal investigation as a last resort in response to the youth-led democracy revolt, which seeks to limit the king’s powers and keep him within the bounds of constitutional rule. from bad to bad, “he said.
After King Maha Vajralongkorn took the throne in 2016 after the death of his father, he informed the government that he did not want to see the majestic law used. But as protests escalated last year and criticism of the monarchy worsened, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha warned that a line had been drawn and that the law would be used.
The protest movement has lost steam since the arrests and since new restrictions were imposed on public assemblies following rising coronavirus cases.
Thai human rights lawyers identified the woman convicted on Tuesday only by her first name Anchan and said she was in the mid-1960s.
Her case dates back six years, when anti-establishment sentiment grew after a 2014 military coup led by Prayuth. She was held in prison from January 2015 until November 2018.
She denied the allegations when her case was first heard in the military court, where the crimes of majestic leashes were pursued for a period after the coup. When her case was transferred to the criminal court, she pleaded guilty in the hope that the court will have sympathy for her actions, because she only distributed the sound, did not post or comment on it, she told local media on Tuesday upon her arrival in court.
“I thought it was nothing. There were so many people who shared this content and listened to it. The guy (who made the content) did it for so many years,” Anchan said. “So I didn’t really think about it and I was too confident and I wasn’t careful enough to realize at the time that it wasn’t right.”
She said she 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 believed to have been the longest sentence for majestic leashes was issued in 2017, when a military court sentenced a man to 35 years in prison for socializing posts considered defamatory of the monarchy. The man, a salesman, had initially been sentenced to 70 years, but his sentence was halved after he pleaded guilty.