There is widespread public anxiety in Thailand over the succession, says the BBC’s south-east Asia correspondent Jonathan Head, but the lese majeste law prevents its open discussion.
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Thailand military courts sentenced two people Friday to stiff sentences for insulting the Thai monarchy in Facebook posts. She added that a military court was likely to hand out harsher sentences than its civilian counterpart for such crimes.
Those accused of defaming, insulting or threatening the monarchy face prison terms ranging from three to 15 years on each count.
His total sentence was 60 years – a decade for each fateful Facebook post – but this was halved as he had pleaded guilty.
The Thai legal rights activist group iLaw said 56 other prosecutions involving similar offenses are ongoing. Now that number is at least 56.
The newspaper reports that critics believe the “lese majeste” law has been used against political enemies of the royal elite and their military allies and now targets those opposed to the 2014 coup.
A man in Bangkok was sentenced to prison for 30 years, and a mother of two young girls was sentenced in northern Thailand for 28 years.
Samak Pantay, 48, was found guilty yesterday of slashing a portrait of the king and queen in July last year, lawyer Anon Numpa said.
But both Thai and global media must heavily self-censor when covering lese majeste and the monarchy – even repeating details of charges of perceived defamation offences could mean breaking the law.
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Poonsuk Poonsukcharoen, a solicitor for support panel Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, said the appellant let to making a Facebook aliungis to give three reviews were being regarded humiliating into the dominion in order to being portion of an anti-establishment sector.
