20 Years Jail For Thai Anti-Royal Texts

[Lite Beer]

20 years' jail for Thai anti-royal texts

BANGKOK, November 23, 2011 (AFP) - A Thai court on Wednesday sentenced a man to 20 years in prison for sending text messages deemed insulting to the monarchy, his lawyer said, under the kingdom's strict lese-majeste laws.

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.

Ampon was arrested in August last year and pleaded not guilty to the charges 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.

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

Under Thai law, anyone convicted of insulting the king, queen, heir or regent faces up to 15 years in prison on each count.

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

Last month a Thai-born US citizen pleaded guilty to insulting the monarchy.

Joe Wichai Commart Gordon 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 on charges relating to remarks about the monarchy posted by other people on her website.

Chiranuch Premchaiporn, the editor of the popular Prachatai news website, denies allegations that she did not remove 10 online posts perceived as critical to the monarchy quickly enough in 2008.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2011-11-23

[Lite Beer]

Lese majeste texting convict sentenced to 20 years in jail

The Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced Ampon Tangnopakul, 61, to serve 20 years in jail after finding him guilty of four counts of texting offensive remarks against Her Majesty the Queen in May 2010.

Ampon was penalised five years each for four texting messages he sent from his mobile phone to that of Amnuay Klongwattanakit's. Amnuay was the private secretary to the then prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The court ruled that Ampon failed to provide credible evidence to back up his defence.

Although Ampon claimed he had sent his phone for repair at the time, he could not locate or identify the repair shop when police took him to the shopping mall where he said the shop was located, the ruling said.

-- The Nation 2011-11-23

[webfact]

Court sentences Thai man to 20 years jail for lese majeste

BANGKOK, Nov 23 - Thailand's Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced a 61-year-old man to 20 years in jail for sending text messages deemed insulting the country's revered monarch to a private secretary of former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The sentence was read via tele-conference as the defendant, Ampon Tangnoppakul, 61, did not appear to hear the court verdict due to inconvenience as the Bangkok Remand Prison where he is jailed is now flooded.

Mr Ampon was found guilty of four charges concerning insulting the monarchy and violating the 2007 Computer Act affecting national security.

The defendant was accused of using his mobile phone to send text messages with wording which was deemed to insult the monarchy to Somkiat Krongwattanasuk, a private secretary to former prime minister Abhisit, between May 9-22, 2010 from several locations.

Mr Ampon denied all charges, saying his mobile phone was broken and fixed at a shop in the Imperial Department Store’s Samrong branch.

He also said he did not know how to send the text messages, not know that the message recipient was Mr Abhisit's secretary.

The court said, however, that the defendant's testimony was without basis, as he failed to identify the shop where he claimed the telephone was serviced, while the investigation found that the mobile phone and SIM card belonged to Mr Ampon himself.

The court sentenced Mr Ampon to a five-year jail term for each charge, altogether 20 years. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2011-11-23