Swiss Man Facing Lesse Majeste Charges

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European faces jail for insulting Thai king

By A Special Correspondent in Chiang Mai

Last Updated: 2:15pm GMT 12/03/2007

A Swiss man today admitted five charges of insulting Thailand's revered king by spray-painting posters of the monarch on the evening of his birthday.

Oliver Jufer is facing up to 15 years in prison.

Oliver Jufer, 57, who has been held in prison for more than three months, appeared at Chiang Mai provincial court in shackles and a brown inmate's uniform, for a secret session.

Members of the public and journalists were barred from the hearing, and earlier court officials told reporters it had been postponed in an effort to get them to leave.

Jufer, from Zurich, faces between three and 15 years in prison for lése majèste when he is sentenced later this month, the court said in a statement afterwards. His guilty plea would normally result in the penalty being halved.

Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej is the world's longest-reigning monarch, and one of the few who is still protected by tough laws that prohibit any insult to the royal family.

According to police reports, Jufer was drunk when he was denied the right to buy alcohol on the evening of Dec 5, the King's birthday and a public holiday when sales are barred.

Enraged, he bought two cans of spray paint and that night graffittied five portraits of the monarch.

The case is so sensitive that Thai media have barely covered it, after police urged local journalists not to do so.

Bhanu Kwanyuen, the prosecutor, said: "It's against the King, the royal family, that's why it's serious. It doesn't do any good to tell this story to other people, because it's against the King."

Asked about his client's motives for the crime, his own defence lawyer Komkhit Kunyodying said: "I was appointed by the court. I cannot answer for him."

A spokesman for the Swiss embassy, which did not send a representative to the court, said it was too early to say whether Thai-Swiss relations would be affected.

"We are never happy when a Swiss national is in prison," he said. "If he has pleaded guilty that may complicate the issue. I think this is not a good sign."

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