Two University Students form Thailand have been sentenced for Two and half years in Prison, early today (GMT), for insulting a Royal family in their University School Play.
The Thais, Patiwat Saraiyaem, 23, and Porntip Mankong, 26, were sentenced, admitting defamation after their arrest last August, nearly a year after performing "The Wolf Bride".
The satire, "The Wolf Bride", a fictional kingdom play, was performed at Bangkok’s Thammasat University in 2013.
News have it that the Thai king and his family were the target of the satirical play and as a result the ruling junta intensifies its crackdown on perceived royal slurs under the kingdom’s controversial 'lese majesty'
law.
Patiwat and Porntip were originally sentenced to five years in prison each but the term was reduced to two years and six months due to their confessions, said a judge at Ratchada Criminal Court in Bangkok.
The Thais, Patiwat Saraiyaem, 23, and Porntip Mankong, 26, were sentenced, admitting defamation after their arrest last August, nearly a year after performing "The Wolf Bride".
The satire, "The Wolf Bride", a fictional kingdom play, was performed at Bangkok’s Thammasat University in 2013.
News have it that the Thai king and his family were the target of the satirical play and as a result the ruling junta intensifies its crackdown on perceived royal slurs under the kingdom’s controversial 'lese majesty'
law.
Patiwat and Porntip were originally sentenced to five years in prison each but the term was reduced to two years and six months due to their confessions, said a judge at Ratchada Criminal Court in Bangkok.
“The court considers their role in the play, caused serious damage to the monarchy and sees no reason to suspend their sentences,” he said.
They were each charged with one count of lese majesty linking to the play.
Report have it that Police are hunting for at least six others involved
in the performance for allegedly violating “112” – the feared section of the Thai criminal code which carries up to 15 years in jail for each count of insulting the king, queen, heir or regent.
Of those on the wanted list, at least two have fled Thailand, joining dozens of academics, activists and political opponents of the coup in self-exile amid a surge in royal defamation cases since the military seized power in May .
Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 87, is revered by many in the country as a demi-god and shielded by one of the world’s most draconian royal defamation laws.
Recent 112 convictions include a taxi driver jailed for two-and-a-half years after his passenger recorded their conversation on a mobile phone,
while a student, 24, was sentenced to the same period of time for defaming the monarchy in a message posted on Facebook.
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