A Thai court yesterday convicted an online editor for hosting posts critical of the revered monarchy on her Web site, but suspended her jail sentence amid demands to reform the lese majeste law.
Chiranuch Premchaiporn, who had faced a possible 20-year sentence, was found guilty of failing to speedily delete comments by other people deemed insulting to the royal family from her popular news Web site, Prachatai.
Judge Kampol Rungrat sentenced Chiranuch to eight months in jail, but suspended the jail term for a year, saying that she had cooperated with the court in Bangkok and had “never violated the law herself.”
Photo: EPA
Analysts said the 44-year-old Web master’s suspended term is unlikely to herald a wider loosening of the kingdom’s strict royal defamation laws, which critics decry as an assault on free speech, including online commentary.
“The defendant cannot deny responsibility for taking care of content on her Web site,” the judge said, adding she was initially given a one-year jail term, but that this was reduced to reflect her “useful” testimony to the court.
The court fined Chiranuch 20,000 baht (US$630).
She still faces further charges — at a date to be set — of breaching a different section of the Thai criminal code that outlaws insults to the royal family and allows for a maximum 15-year sentence for every conviction.
The royal family is a highly sensitive topic in politically turbulent Thailand. The 84-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who is revered as a demi-god by many Thais, has been hospitalized since September 2009.
While noting that the suspended jail term follows considerable domestic and foreign condemnation of Thailand’s royal slur laws, analysts said it would not mean fewer lese majeste prosecutions.
“It’s a victory for Chiranuch, but not an indication of a wider relaxation of the laws ... we will see the law used over and over again,” Thailand expert Pavin Chachavalpongpun of Kyoto University in Japan said.
The court tried to strike a balance between clamping down on perceived criticism of the royal family and avoiding an “international outcry,” according to David Streckfuss, an independent analyst based in Thailand.
“If they found her not guilty, it would open the door to reviewing whether past sentences seemed fair,” he said.
“By finding her guilty, they were trying to say no more leeway” to what can be said about the monarchy on the Internet, he said.
Chiranuch was convicted over 10 comments posted on Prachatai in 2008. She denied the charges, an unusual step given that acquittals in lese majeste cases are rare and defendants tend to plead guilty in the hope of a royal pardon.
Scrutiny of the law has intensified since the death of a 62-year-old Thai man this month while serving a 20-year sentence for committing lese majeste.
On Tuesday, a petition signed by almost 27,000 people urging reform was submitted to parliament in the first mass action of its kind.
Amnesty International researcher Benjamin Zawacki welcomed the suspension of Chiranuch’s jail term, but said the guilty verdict still infringed on freedom of expression.
“For political purposes an acquittal was simply not on the cards,” he said. “The suspended sentence seems the most politically palatable way for the government to handle this.”
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
RSS