"Thai sentenced for repeating royal insult" by Thanyarat Doksone | Associated Press, October 02, 2013
BANGKOK — The founder of Thailand’s royalist Yellow Shirt movement was sentenced Tuesday to two years in jail for defaming the monarchy by repeating offensive comments made by a political opponent.
A Bangkok appeals court found 65-year-old media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul guilty of lese majeste for quoting remarks made by an antiestablishment activist to a crowd at a protest in 2008. He was released after posting $15,935 in bail pending a planned appeal.
Thailand’s lese majeste law is the world’s harshest, mandating a jail term of 3 to 15 years. Tuesday’s action overturned a criminal court’s dismissal of the case against Sondhi on the grounds that he was only urging that the original speaker be prosecuted. The judge also cut his three-year sentence by a year because he provided helpful testimony.
Sondhi was the main leader of the People’s Alliance for Democracy, also known as the Yellow Shirts, which led major street rallies in Bangkok that helped trigger a 2006 coup that toppled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and ignited a period of political instability in the country.
Related: Boston Globe Color Blind When it Comes to Thailand
The Yellow Shirts, made up of mostly the urban elite, claimed Thaksin was corrupt and accused him of disrespecting the monarchy.
Actually, it was the whole population save for the Red Shirt CIA types.
In 2008, the Yellow Shirts took to the streets again after a pro-Thaksin party was returned to power. In an effort to oust it, they occupied the prime minister’s offices for three months and Bangkok’s two airports for a week. Those actions led to charges of terrorism and other offenses being filed against Sondhi and his top colleagues, cases that are still going through the judicial process.
The lese majeste law has traditionally been used as a political weapon in Thailand, where the monarchy is generally held in high respect.
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Also see:
Thai Tip
Thai Litter Box
Looked like candy to me.
"Thai club owner acquitted in fatal New Year’s fire" Associated Press, October 23, 2013
BANGKOK — A Thai appeals court on Tuesday acquitted a nightclub owner of responsibility for a fire that killed 67 people in Bangkok on New Year’s Day in 2009, reversing a lower court’s ruling.
More than 1,000 revelers were inside the Santika club when an indoor fireworks display that was set off after a New Year’s countdown ignited the blaze. The fire raced through the building, sending panicked guests running for the main entrance. Victims died of burns, smoke inhalation, and from being crushed in the stampede....
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Related:
Sunday Globe Special: Quick Set From The Station
Burned Alive in Brazil
