Thai Radio Host Jailed - On Tuesday, a Thai radio host, Kathawut Boonpitak, was convicted to jail for five years because he made an alleged defamation of the monarchy on the radio show.
What the radio host was charged with was violating the lese majeste law. Said law punishes people who insult, defame or threaten the monarchy in any sort of way.
Apparently, Bookpitak made comments on a program aired on his website on March that fall into this category, his lawyer Sasinan Thamnithinan shared and ABC News noted.
The lese majeste law from Thailand is the harshest one in the world. People can get jail terms ranging from three to fifteen years due to the defamation against the monarchy, like the radio host committed.
The prison term provided to the Thai radio host was of ten years in the beginning and because he confessed his offense, it got reduced to five years.
However, Sasinan, who works for the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights Center, said that the sentence was quite long compared to civilian courts. In those, they usually give three to five years' imprisonment, in the case that the defendant does not plead guilty.
Before a coup held in May 22, these sorts of cases were dealt in a civilian court. After May, there was a crackdown on lese majeste offenses and they passed to a military court, which is a lot stricter, Yahoo News noted.
The Thai radio host case is actually one of the first ones that passed through the military court after the mentioned coup.
Bookpitak was summoned by the junta back in June, when he returned to Thailand after being abroad. Since then, he has been in the police and military custody.
The monarchy is a sensitive topic in Thailand. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 86, is the world's longest reigning monarch. He is in poor health and the monarchy institution figure has been fading. Still, the monarchy is highly respected and seen.
