Bloke faces 25 years in the cooler for upsetting Thai king on Facebook Setting a record for what may be the most unreasonable jail sentence ever handed down over a Facebook post, a Thailand citizen has started a 25-year stretch behind bars for five pictures deemed insulting to the country's monarchy. Tiensutham Suttijitseranee, a 58-year-old businessman, was convicted in a closed military court …
You bet the Thai military are worried. The current King is nearing the end, and according to some reports, the Crown Prince is incapable of ruling.
According to a Thai bloke I know, the current King is still held in high regard by the majority of Thai people, (not everyone however), but the Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn is wildly unpopular, and there are rumours that if he ever tries to take the throne there will be blood spilled in the streets.
I imagine the military are just having a crackdown to try to prevent trouble.
I'm a UK citizen but reside in Thailand. I suggest you remove the rude comments on this post quickly by people who don't understand the dynamics of this country. If not there is possibility your whole domain will get blocked completely in Thailand. This is what happened to the Daily Mail website. Yes it is very strict here on this point.
Well, tough on you then I'm afraid. You may need to find other ways of reading The Register, I heard Tor Browser is gaining in popularity.
I am very much in doubt The Register would stoop to censoring its comments section (or actual articles), especially for sake of some backwater dictatorship.
Setting a record for what may be the most unreasonable jail sentence ever handed down over a Facebook post, a Thailand citizen has started a 25-year stretch behind bars for five pictures deemed insulting to the country's monarchy.
Didn't that one guy in Saudi Arabia get 10 years, fined a million Riyals, and 1000 public lashes for a FB post? I think having the flesh ripped from your buttocks a thousand times by a bamboo cane beats 25 years in prison in the "no me gusta" contest.
Also, he might be facing death by beheading which is arguably even worse.
The businessman knows that it is a crime to say bad things against the king. In the same way, we know that it is a crime to go over 70 mph on the motorway. Many complain that 70 mph is too slow for modern cars, however we know that if we get caught going above the speed limit then we get fined and penalty points get added. If we get caught for committing a crime, we should suffer the consequences. Just because you don't agree to their laws, it doesn't mean that you should condemn a country for not having the same laws as you do.
In Indonesia, they tell you that if you bring drugs to the country, there is a death penalty. We shouldn't complain if a country has a law explicitly saying that it is illegal to say anything against the king and someone gets punished for doing so. It isn't something that is unknown.
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