Man imprisoned for 5 years for urging harm to PM’s twin daughters via tweet

[webfact]

 

The Criminal Court yesterday (Thursday) sentenced to 5 years, without suspension, a man who was accused of sending a message on Twitter, urging people to sexually assault the twin daughters of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.

 

Police tracked the message to its sender, identified as Wuttichai Saridlertworasin, who was summoned by the police to hear computer crime and criminal charges against him in March 2021.

 

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The 36-year-old man claimed, however, that he did not have a Twitter account and that someone had hacked into his Facebook account and attached his picture to the threatening message on Twitter.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/man-imprisoned-for-5-years-for-urging-harm-to-pms-twin-daughters-via-tweet/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2022-05-27

 

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[Nickelbeer]

You can’t help but wonder what the REAL story is. I remember the “Uncle SMS” case where a 67 year old man died in prison for sending an SMS message when he denied even knowing how to send one. The Computer Crimes Law is among the most dangerous on earth.

[Joe Farang]

Beware keyboard warriors!

[sammieuk1]

Incarceration is the authoritarians dissent crusher that and an concrete filled oil drum in the river ????   

[Joe Farang]

6 minutes ago, sammieuk1 said:

Incarceration is the authoritarians dissent crusher that and an concrete filled oil drum in the river ????   

I disagree. I believe politicians in general are fair game if someone wants to verbally attack them in a constructive manner(relatively), but I believe family is off limits. If someone says vile things about their children, then a jail term is justified.

[smutcakes]

54 minutes ago, Joe Farang said:

I disagree. I believe politicians in general are fair game if someone wants to verbally attack them in a constructive manner(relatively), but I believe family is off limits. If someone says vile things about their children, then a jail term is justified.

I agree that family should be off limits but 5 years?

[Photoguy21]

If you go and make threats such as these then you should be locked up. For what is suggested in the write up 5 years seems quite short

[Mr Meeseeks]

1 hour ago, Joe Farang said:

I disagree. I believe politicians in general are fair game if someone wants to verbally attack them in a constructive manner(relatively), but I believe family is off limits. If someone says vile things about their children, then a jail term is justified.

Plenty of things said on here about the Shinawatra children in the past. 

[TheFishman1]

Maybe the guy really was hacked five years seems like a long time TIT

[SomchaiCNX]

1 hour ago, Joe Farang said:

I disagree. I believe politicians in general are fair game if someone wants to verbally attack them in a constructive manner(relatively), but I believe family is off limits. If someone says vile things about their children, then a jail term is justified.

Families are not off limits to these officials when it comes to giving them favors and job offers resulting in a better future. But I agree children of honest politicians should be off limits. However kids of corrupt people enjoy the privileges that their parents gained from corruption and they should be subject to public screening.

[SomchaiCNX]

1 minute ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

Plenty of things said on here about the Shinawatra children in the past. 

The got plenty of favors in return due to their parents, so they are part of it.

[Mr Meeseeks]

5 minutes ago, SomchaiCNX said:

The got plenty of favors in return due to their parents, so they are part of it.

Sounds familiar.

 

BANGKOK — Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha’s twin daughters on Wednesday filed a police complaint for libel against about a hundred social media accounts who accused them of holding privilege and funneling Prayut’s funds, among other allegations. 

https://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2020/09/03/prayuts-daughters-hit-back-at-netizens-accusations/

[robblok]

1 hour ago, smutcakes said:

I agree that family should be off limits but 5 years?

5 year is too long especially as there were no concrete plans. It sounds a lot like venting. However this should not be allowed. Actually threatening anyone should not be allowed. In my country we punish them for doing this too. However the punishment is a lot lower and there should be some plan or whatever. 

 

If i post on the internet someone should kill smutcakes, without any plans and just venting i dont think that 5 years is justified. Just too much. 

[hotchilli]

2 hours ago, Joe Farang said:

Beware keyboard warriors!

????

[hanuman2543]

If they send him to prison,  Suthep should share a room with him:

 

https://www-khaosodenglish-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2013/12/16/1387195299/amp/?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#aoh=16536415909395&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=Von %1%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.khaosodenglish.com%2Fpolitics%2F2013%2F12%2F16%2F1387195299%2F

 

He was only 10 years old when this happened.

Edited May 27, 2022 by hanuman2543

[spidermike007]

Murderers here walk after 3 years, but a tweet gets you 5. No wonder the judicial system here is not regarded by many as just and fair. Highly partial, is what it is. 

 

The hatred of the leadership here is under estimated. Everyone I talk to says nasty stuff about all of them. Nearly all Thais. 

Edited May 27, 2022 by spidermike007

[smutcakes]

48 minutes ago, robblok said:

5 year is too long especially as there were no concrete plans. It sounds a lot like venting. However this should not be allowed. Actually threatening anyone should not be allowed. In my country we punish them for doing this too. However the punishment is a lot lower and there should be some plan or whatever. 

 

If i post on the internet someone should kill smutcakes, without any plans and just venting i dont think that 5 years is justified. Just too much. 

I already see posts on twitter of facebook posts around the PDRC protests of a similar nature... but obviously they are good people

[mikeymike100]

2 hours ago, SomchaiCNX said:

Families are not off limits to these officials when it comes to giving them favors and job offers resulting in a better future. But I agree children of honest politicians should be off limits. However kids of corrupt people enjoy the privileges that their parents gained from corruption and they should be subject to public screening.

Right but the problem is who are the honest politicians and who are the corrupt ones?

[daveAustin]

2 hours ago, Photoguy21 said:

If you go and make threats such as these then you should be locked up. For what is suggested in the write up 5 years seems quite short

Indeed, though if one’s account was hacked that would suck a bit. 

[BritManToo]

Just now, mikeymike100 said:

Right but the problem is who are the honest politicians and who are the corrupt ones?

Easy, as none of them are honest, they're all corrupt.

[StevieAus]

2 hours ago, smutcakes said:

I agree that family should be off limits but 5 years?

If he urged someone to sexually assault my daughterI would be happy with him receiving a ten year sentence.

[smutcakes]

7 minutes ago, StevieAus said:

If he urged someone to sexually assault my daughterI would be happy with him receiving a ten year sentence.

So would i, no doubt. But lets have some continuity with sentancing.

[StevieAus]

14 hours ago, smutcakes said:

So would i, no doubt. But lets have some continuity with sentancing.

The sentencing is always a difficult issue and often emotions take over as we never get to hear the full circumstances and what might be mitigating factors.

I suppose in Thailand as in other countries you have members of the judiciary who take a hard line on certain crimes and others who give a slap on the wrist.

[mikebell]

19 hours ago, SomchaiCNX said:

children of honest politicians should be off limits.

but so hard to find!

[smutcakes]

2 hours ago, StevieAus said:

The sentencing is always a difficult issue and often emotions take over as we never get to hear the full circumstances and what might be mitigating factors.

I suppose in Thailand as in other countries you have members of the judiciary who take a hard line on certain crimes and others who give a slap on the wrist.

All very convenient that certain cases end up in front of hard line and others seemingly always end up with the wrist slappers...and if that does not explain discrepencies in sentencing we can fall back on the old 'grey areas' and 'mitigating' circumstances which the public cannot know and will have to trust the judcliciary. 

[SomchaiCNX]

23 hours ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

Sounds familiar.

 

BANGKOK — Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha’s twin daughters on Wednesday filed a police complaint for libel against about a hundred social media accounts who accused them of holding privilege and funneling Prayut’s funds, among other allegations. 

https://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2020/09/03/prayuts-daughters-hit-back-at-netizens-accusations/

Did not receive anything yet.

 

[Iamfalang]

this is why NEVER have any social media platform.

 

maybe not in this case, but I'm sure there is at least ONE case where....hack, post, prison, life over.

 

and then 100 pages of blaming the falang because we are sheep and believe everything.  

[zzaa09]

A side of a more disconcerting note might be to question the continuous reference of a "Prime Minister" Prayut. 

He's not truly that, is he? Even by way of technical and legal terminology. 

 

Should be disturbing for most, yet it's not. 

[NoshowJones]

All of us sensible posters know about the unelected PM, but this goon should not be doing anything against his daughters or any of his family.

He deserves the five years in prison and probably even more.

[richard_smith237]

I suppose we may all dream of the degree of power to influence the execution of such penalties should someone publicly incite others to rape and kill our children....  

 

The perspective that the father of the children targeted took power through forceful measures under the threat of grave violence it is quite surprising that this person only received 5 years. 

 

We perhaps ourselves would demand a greater sentence should it be our children targeted. 

 

That said, whether the penalty is proportionate to the ‘crime’ is one thing, but the penalty is certainly disproportionate to other penalties. If this were the daughters of a factory worker who were targeted the issue would be ignored. 

 

There is of course another concerning facet of this issue - The ‘charged’ (I’m deliberately leaving out guilty in this sentence) claims his twitter account was hacked and that it was not him who posted such comments. He ‘confessed’ but in Thailand that means little when with confession comes a reduction in sentence against overwhelming opposition - under-duress of longer term penalties confession sometimes the only option for the innocent. 

 

Thus: Could his twitter have been hacked ??... It's certainly possible. Could this now become a means of attacking an enemy?....  get hold of their phone, post offensive content against powerful people.

 

 

Ultimately, great care needs to be taken when handling a case such as this. 

On one side there is freedom of speech, on the other side there is ‘incitement to cause harm on others’... 

 

I think the days of pure freedom of speech are over for we must all be responsible for what we ’speak’... however a fine balance allowing freedom and prevent hate-speech must also be achieved. 

 

Its tricky and not as black & white as some of us may like to think. 

 

Edited May 28, 2022 by richard_smith237