Lese majesty in Thailand

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The Thai Lese Majesty or Lèse Majesté Law (French, from the Latin Laesa maiestas ) criminalizes offensive statements or actions against the King of Thailand , the royal family and the Thai monarchy. Violations can be punished with prison sentences of up to 15 years per offense under Article 112 of the Thai Penal Code. Thai law also protects foreign majesties and heads of state, insulting such personalities can be punished with up to 7 years in prison and / or fines of up to 14,000 baht under Article 133 .

History of the scheme

Loss of majesty was punishable under almost 75 provisions of the Three Seals Act of 1804, with cruel threats of punishment. During the reign of King Ramas V , a modern ordinance was first enacted in 1900. It was only valid in the capital and the six surrounding provinces ( Monthon Bangkok ). The Western advisors who drafted the first modern penal code incorporated a provision based on German criminal law that had impressed the king on his state visit to Europe in 1907. The threat of punishment of three years at the beginning has been tightened several times over the course of time and its scope has been expanded. Since the term of office of Prime Minister Thanin Kraivichien (1976–1977), the sentence has been fifteen years, which in view of the conditions in Thai prisons amounts to a death sentence .

According to Article 8 of the constitution of Thailand , which has been in force since 2007 , the king is “ sacrosanct and inviolable.” According to the constitution, the Lèse Majesté is only fulfilled if the king, the queen, the crown prince and the regent are criticized. Thanin, who was previously a judge of the Supreme Court, interpreted this as a general ban on criticism, including of royal development projects, the institution of the monarchy, the Chakri dynasty and all previous kings. The sentence was originally limited to a maximum of seven years in prison, but has been increased to a minimum of three years and a maximum sentence of 15 years. This sharper version is still valid today. The maximum sentence of seven years applies, however, to the insult of majesty against foreign monarchs, their consorts, heirs to the throne, as well as insulting foreign heads of state of friendly nations (Article 133 of the Thai Penal Code). However, according to the 2017 Amnesty International Report, military courts also imposed prison sentences of up to 60 years for multiple offenses, even against people with mental illness.

practice

Both Thais and foreigners face jail sentences, and foreign journalists in particular face expulsion. The accusation of lese majesty is not raised by the king himself or by the court, but is prosecuted by the police or public prosecutors when reported by private individuals (particularly often politicians). In Thai politics, this is often used to discredit the political opponent, to accuse him of a lack of loyalty to the king and the state in general and to reduce his sympathy with the population or to eliminate him completely.

King Bhumibol himself said the following in a birthday speech 2005, which was received with surprise:

“To say that the king should not be criticized would mean that the king was not human. ... When the king can't make mistakes, it's like looking down on him and not treating him as a human being. But the king can make mistakes. "

However, due to current events, this admission was specifically directed against the then Prime Minister Thaksin , who at the time tried to eliminate some of his opponents by suing for defamation. The fact that the king himself questioned his institutionalized inviolable role could thus also be interpreted as an "attack on those who advocate a limited role for the palace in public life".

Thaksin's power had been watched with concern at court since 2001. As the Far Eastern Economic Review reported, the issue was banned in Thailand and the paper's Bangkok representatives, including the President of the Foreign Correspondents' Club, Rodney Tasker, faced an expulsion order on February 25, 2002.

In fact, after the mentioned speech by the king and, above all, the coup in September of the following year, the number of prosecuted cases of lese majesty did not decrease, but rose sharply: from six cases a year (before 2005) to a high of 476 cases a year 2010.

In connection with the "Law against Computer Crime" of 2007, the libel of majesty paragraph is used to considerably restrict freedom of expression on the Internet. The Computer Crime Act was tightened again in December 2016 and, according to human rights organizations, now enables the government to monitor and restrict online communication almost without restriction.

Reform proposal

In 2011, the Nitirat group was formed, which mainly includes younger law lecturers from Thammasat University . She proposed to replace Article 112 of the Criminal Code. According to the proposal, the law should distinguish between denigrations of the monarch on the one hand and those against the queen, heir apparent or regent on the other. The maximum sentence for insulting the head of state should be three years, and for other people two years imprisonment. The minimum penalty should not be a custodial sentence, but a fine. Expressly excluded from the offense should be criticism that is a serious political expression, demonstrably true, or useful to the public. The office of the royal private secretary should be given the right to file criminal charges. Both the government and the parliamentary opposition rejected the proposal. The group leader, Professor Worachet Pakeerut, was attacked and beaten up after the proposals were published.

Examples

  • The social critic and environmental activist Sulak Sivaraksa has been accused of lese majesty on several occasions since 1984 because of his comments on grievances and undesirable developments in the country, which is why he even lived in exile for some time. In October 2014, the now 82-year-old avowed royalist was again charged by two retired generals for alleged lese majesty after he had publicly doubted whether the legendary "elephant duel" between King Naresuan and the Burmese crown prince at the end of the 16th century actually took place. Three years later, the police turned the investigation over to the military prosecutor, and Sulak was summoned to court . Even the conservative Bangkok Post described the case as "so absurd it hurts".
  • The Hollywood film Anna and the King from 1999 was not allowed to be shot or published in Thailand because of the lese majesty law.
  • Since the spring of 2006, numerous charges of lese majesty have been filed against the other side by Thaksin supporters and opponents.
  • The case of Ampon Tangnoppakul, who is said to have used his mobile phone to send four short messages insulting the king and queen to Somkiat Khrongwattanasuk, secretary of the then Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva , whom he does not know personally, attracted much public attention . The 62-year-old became known as "Uncle SMS". He was sentenced to four five-year sentences and died in prison in May 2012, shortly after his appeal was finally rejected.
  • In February 2012, the “ red shirt ” activist Surachai Danwattananusorn pleaded guilty to the libel of majesty. Based on his confession, the court halved the maximum sentence and sentenced him to seven and a half years in prison, and he was pardoned after 19 months in prison.
  • On January 23, 2013, journalist Somyot Prueksakasemsuk was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The charges were based on two articles anonymously published in Somyot's Voice of Thaksin magazine. He didn't want to reveal the author's identity, so the court held him responsible. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment in two cases of lese majesty.
  • After the rejection of her appeal against a verdict from 2009, the prominent “ red shirt ” activist Daranee Charnchoensilpakul (“Da Torpedo”) was finally sentenced on June 12, 2013 to 15 years in prison for insulting the king.
  • The “ yellow shirt ” leader Sondhi Limthongkul , who had often accused his opponents of lese majesty, was convicted of the same offense in 2013 and sentenced to two years in prison for publicly repeating the statements of his opponent Da Torpedo (to attack her for it ). The court ruled that the mere repetition of the statements constituted a libel of majesty.
  • On June 24, 2015, a court sentenced a mentally ill man to three years and four months in prison for sending an email in 2011. The court ruled that there was no evidence that the defendant was "unable to control himself".
  • The longest total imprisonment imposed so far for lese majesty is 30 years, pronounced by a military court in August 2015 against a man who had published six "critical" posts on Facebook. A ten-year sentence was imposed for each individual case, half of the sentence was waived because the defendant pleaded guilty.
  • Comments about royal family pets such as Tongdaeng and Fufu dogs can also lead to lawsuits. In 2015, a young factory worker was charged and charged with making sarcastic comments about Tongdaeng, King Bhumibol Adulyadej's pet. At the same time, he was also accused of incitement to hatred for sharing allegations of corruption against the military junta. The related coverage in the International New York Times was not printed in Bangkok. After 86 days in detention, he was released on payment of a fine of 500,000 baht. The pets are otherwise more likely to be used to indirectly discuss aspects of the royal family's lifestyle. The solemn cremation and funeral of Fufu, the poodle of the then Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn in February 2015, received intensive commentary on social media in Thailand, which indirectly enabled a discussion of the Royal Highnesses.

There are cases of foreigners who have publicly criticized or made fun of the king and the royal family. In such cases, too, prison sentences were imposed, but mostly lifted after a short time by pardon.

  • At the beginning of December 2006, the Swiss Oliver Jufer was arrested by the Thai authorities for smearing several portraits of the king while intoxicated. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison on March 29, 2007. Only a royal pardon could save him from that prison sentence. The king granted this personally; Jufer was released from prison on April 12 and immediately expelled from the country.
  • Australian Harry Nicolaides, author of the self-published novel Verisimilitude , of which only seven copies have been sold, was arrested at Bangkok Airport in September 2008. He was accused of insulting majesty because of a passage in his book about an unspecified crown prince. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison but pardoned by the king after a month.
  • The Thai government blocked access to the YouTube website in 2007 after several vicious videos about the king surfaced. This sparked a debate about freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Paul Champion: Professor in read majeste row . Reuters. September 25, 2007. Retrieved September 26, 2007.
  2. ↑ a b Articles 130-134, 310-312 of the Thai Penal Code. (No longer available online.) United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, archived from the original on May 22, 2014 ; Retrieved on May 22, 2014 (English): “Section 133. Whoever, defaming, insulting or threatening the Sovereign, Queen, Consort, Heir-apparent or Head of Foreign State, shall be imprisoned as from one year to seven years or fined as from two thousand to fourteen thousand Baht, or both. “ Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.unodc.org
  3. ^ Streckfuss, David: Truth on Trial in Thailand. Defamation, Treason, and Lèse-Majesté. London 2011, ISBN 978-0-415-67574-1
  4. ^ David Streckfuss: Kings in the Age of Nations: The Paradox of Lèse-Majesté as Political Crime in Thailand . In: Comparative Studies in Society and History . 33, No. 3, August, pp. 445-475.
  5. ^ Colum Murphy: A Tug of War for Thailand's Soul . In: Far Eastern Economic Review . September 2006.
  6. ↑ Amnesty Report Thailand amnesty.de, accessed on September 11, 2018
  7. ↑ Thailand's Topic of the Year 2009: Lèse Majèsté (PDF; 122 kB) Mark Teufel, asienhaus.de, 2009
  8. ↑ Royal Birthday Address: 'King Can Do Wrong' . National Media. December 5, 2005. Retrieved July 12, 2008.
  9. ↑ http://sovereignmyth.blogspot.com/2008/09/king-can-do-wrong.html
  10. ↑ Michael K. Connors: "Four Elections and a Coup D'etat: Giving Democracy a Break in Thailand" - Australian Journal of International Affairs. Vol. 62 [2008] No. 4, 478-496.
  11. ↑ Authorities to deport foreign reporters Committee to Protect Journalists , 25 February 2002
  12. ↑ FT, High time to concede the Thai king can do wrong , Financial Times, July 20, 2011 (English)
  13. ^ Thailand: Cyber ​​Crime Act Tightens Internet Control. Human Rights Watch, December 21, 2016.
  14. ^ Thailand: Computer Crime Act. Article 19, January 31, 2017.
  15. ↑ Read Mejeste Law: Nitirat scholars propose several changes. The Nation, January 16, 2012.
  16. ↑ Lèse majesté leading campaigner physically assaulted. Prachathai, February 29, 2012.
  17. ↑ Thai academic accused of insulting long-dead king. BBC News, Oct. 20, 2014.
  18. ↑ Veera Prateepchaikul: Sulak read majeste case so absurd it hurts. In: Bangkok Post (online), October 16, 2017.
  19. ^ Julian Gearing: A Protective Law: It's called lèse-majesté - and it is taken seriously . In: Asiaweek . 45, No. 48.
  20. ^ Colum Murphy: A Tug of War for Thailand's Soul . In: Far Eastern Economic Review . September 2006.
  21. ↑ Thai coup leader says new PM within two weeks . TurkishPress. September 19, 2006. Retrieved September 26, 2007.
  22. ↑ Lese majesty: imprisonment for "red shirt" leaders in Thailand. In: ORF . February 28, 2012, Retrieved February 28, 2012 .
  23. ↑ Because of lese majesty behind bars. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . June 12, 2013. Retrieved June 12, 2013 .
  24. ^ Mentally ill man convicted of email. In: The world . June 25, 2015, accessed June 25, 2015 .
  25. ↑ Man jailed for 30 years in Thailand for insulting the monarchy on Facebook. In: The Guardian (online), August 7, 2015.
  26. ↑ Jonathan Head: Defaming a dog: The ways to get arrested for reading-majeste in Thailand . In: BBC , December 16, 2015. Retrieved December 29, 2015. 
  27. ↑ Jigmey Bhutia: Thai man faces 37 years jail for 'insulting' King Bhumibol Adulyadej through his dog . International Business Times. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  28. ↑ Oliver Holmes: Thai man faces jail for insulting king's dog with 'sarcastic' internet post . The Guardian. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
  29. ↑ Erin Hale: 4 Facebook Posts That Can Get You Arrested In Thailand. In: Forbes (online), November 30, 2016.
  30. ^ Swiss man jailed for Thai insult , BBC World , March 29, 2007
  31. ↑ Thailand blocks YouTube web portal because of video about König , Der Standard , April 13, 2007
  32. ↑ Thailand's king pardons Swiss man , BBC World, April 12, 2007
  33. ^ Writer jailed for Thai 'insult'. BBC News, Jan. 19, 2009.
  34. ↑ Thailand frees Australian writer. BBC News, February 21, 2009.
  35. ↑ YouTube: Tutoring for Thailand in blocking individual videos , Die Presse , April 10, 2007