Man given 10 years for insulting Thai monarchy

A Thai citizen was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison on charges of insulting the king and his family by posting edited photos of the monarchy on the Internet, a court said.

The court found Suwicha guilty of violating the country’s lees majesty law, which prohibits insulting the king and his family, as well as the 2007 Computer Crime Act, which bars the circulation of material deemed detrimental to national security or that causes public panic. Until recently, lees majesty prosecutions were rare in Thailand, and the accusation was mostly used for partisan political purposes as a means of smearing opponents.

Thailand is a constitutional monarchy but has a tough lees majesty law that mandates a jail term of three to 15 years for “whoever defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir to the throne or the regent.” Anyone violating the Computer Crime Act can be imprisoned for up to five years and fined 100,000 baht ($2,770).

The Thai government has also blocked several thousand Internet sites that it said were offensive to the monarchy. Last year, anti-government protesters showed their loyalty to the king by wearing yellow, which represents the day of his birth. They accused former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his allies of trying to usurp the king’s central role — something Thaksin has denied. Thaksin, however, has sharply criticized the king’s chief adviser, Privy Council head Prem Tinsulanonda, and accused him of masterminding the 2006 military coup that ousted him from power.

The comments have shocked Thailand, where the Privy Council is considered by many an extension of the king himself.