Thai student sentenced to 5 years for insulting monarchy on Facebook

Pic: AP.

By Asian Correspondent Staff Nov 04, 2014 

A Thai student was sentenced to 5 years in jail Tuesday for posting comments on Facebook deemed insulting to the Southeast Asian nation’s revered monarchy.

Prachathai reported that ‘Akaradej’,  a 24-year-old undergraduate student at Mahanakorn University of Technology, had his sentence reduced to two-and-a-half years as he had pleaded guilty to the offence.

The defendant was arrested on June 18 at his university dormitory after a complaint was filed by a fellow Facebook user in March. ‘Akaradej’ initially denied the charges, before pleading guilty in September.

Prachathai reports:

The court ruled that the defendant used a Facebook username “Uncle Dom also loves the King” to post lèse majesté comments on the Facebook status of a friend.

Akaradej’s father has submitted 150,000-200,000 baht bail requests five times. The court, however, has never granted bail citing flight risk.

The case began after one of Akaradej’s Facebook friends, supposedly the owner of the Facebook status, filed a police complaint in March 2014.

Thailand’s draconian lèse majesté law, Article 112 of the Criminal Code, states that it is a criminal offense to “defame, insult or threaten” the king, queen, heir to the throne or regent. If convicted, offenders can face up to 15 years in prison.

Last month, Asian Correspondent blogger Saksith Saiyasombut reported on the rising number of lèse majesté cases under the military junta, which took power in a coup on May 22 this year:

Things have gotten considerably worse since the coup in May 2014, as the military junta announced days after the hostile takeover of powers that certaincases including lèse majesté are being sent to a military court.

The past few months saw a considerable surge in arrests, trials and sentences relating to lèse majesté cases.