Thai men sentenced to 20 years for anti-royal texts

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Thai man gets 20 years for anti-royal texts

A Thai court sentenced a man to 20 years in prison Wednesday for sending text messages deemed insulting to the monarchy, alarming critics who say the kingdom's strict lese-majeste laws hamper free speech.

Ampon Tangnoppakul, 61, was found guilty of four counts of sending messages to the private secretary of then-prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in May 2010, according to the criminal court in Bangkok.

"The court found him guilty and sentenced him to 20 years in jail," his lawyer Anon Nampa told AFP, adding that he had 30 days to lodge an appeal.

Under Thai legislation that has come under increased scrutiny in the country, anyone convicted of insulting the king, queen, heir or regent can face a lengthy prison sentence.

Ampon, who became known in Thailand as "Uncle SMS" during the case, was arrested in August last year and pleaded not guilty during his trial.

After his arrest, Thailand's Central Bureau of Investigation said the messages were "inappropriate and considered insulting to the monarchy and have upset the recipients," without revealing their content.

Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International's Thailand researcher, said Ampon was almost certainly a prisoner of conscience.

"We are not saying Thailand's monarchy should not be protected, but it should be protected in a way that is consistent with Thailand's international legal obligation on freedom of expression," he told AFP.

The royal family is a very sensitive subject in Thailand and 83-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, is revered as a demi-god by many Thais.

Academics have noted a sharp increase in new royal insult cases in recent years and rights groups have expressed concern that the law was used to suppress freedom of expression under the last pro-establishment government.

Observers say the new government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who came to power in August, has yet to improve the situation.

The Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand, set up by the last government in 2010 to investigate political violence, said in September use of the law had been "directly related to political conflict" in recent history.

Paul Chambers, research director at Payap University in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, said the pattern of lese majeste imprisonments "looks like a rapid witch-hunt".

He said Ampon's verdict "showed that Thai courts are unwilling to tolerate what they themselves perceive as any appearances of dissent against the country's paramount institution."

Last month a Thai-born US citizen, Joe Wichai Commart Gordon, pleaded guilty to insulting the monarchy.

He was arrested in May during a holiday in the kingdom and accused of posting a link to a translation of a banned book on his blog, along with other material deemed offensive, while living in the United States.

In the wake of Gordon's case, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, Frank La Rue, urged Thailand to amend the lese-majeste laws, saying they stifled debate on matters of important public interest.

The UN call prompted the Thai foreign ministry to accept the laws may have been misused and stress their aim was to protect the dignity of the monarchy, not restrict free speech.

The ministry said a special committee in the Royal Thai Police headquarters had been set up to scrutinise potential prosecutions.

A prominent Thai website editor is also facing up to 20 years in jail for allegedly failing to remove other people's online remarks deemed critical of the monarchy from her website quickly enough in 2008.

Those of you who have Obama fixations can at least be thankful that you can post your unpatriotic garbage here with impunity.