Thailand’s former King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest-serving monarch, will be cremated on Thursday, over a year after he died.
While millions of people are mourning the revered monarch, who ruled for 70 years, Thailand's military government is ramping up its crackdown on people insulting or criticizing the royal family.
Over the past three years, more than 100 people have been charged or convicted for violating the country’s strict draconian lèse-majesté law (violating the dignity of a ruler), which forbids insult of the monarchy.
The military leadership says some sort of democracy will return next year, but there is no indication that will mean freedom of speech when it comes to the monarchy.
Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay reports from the capital, Bangkok.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Thai Woman Awaits Verdict in Royal-insult Trial
A Thai woman is facing 20 years in jail for comments posted online criticising the Thai king, who is revered as God in the Southeast Asian country. Chiranuch Premchaiporn, a web master, was initially arrested in 2009, charged with being too slow to remove 10 comments from a forum on her website. The postings were made by other people, but under tough computer crime laws enacted after the military coup in 2006, the website's host can also be prosecuted. Chiranuch's verdict was delayed by a month because the judge needed more time. The Thai royal family is, by law, above criticism. Anyone who is caught breaking the rules is more often than not, thrown in jail. Earlier this month, an elderly man died less than six months into a 20-year prison sentence for sending four text messages that were deemed insulting to the monarchy. The death of Amphon Tangnoppakul, also known as Uncle SMS, has shone a light on the country's strict lèse-majesté laws, legal stipulations which criminalise the violation of the royal family and which were designed to prevent criticism of them. Family members of prisoners, also a growing portion of the public, are trying to push for changes to the lèse-majesté laws. Yingluck Shinawtra, the Thai prime minister, admitted to Al Jazeera in a recent interview that the law is sometimes misused. Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay says from Bangkok.
