Bangkok: Thailand's Court of Appeal has handed down a record sentence to a political activist believed to have committed a criminal offense of insulting the monarchy, sentencing him to 50 years in prison after finding him guilty of 25 violations of the law, a lawyers' group said. He said.
Mongkun Therakot, 30, was sentenced last year to 28 years in prison by the regional court in the northern province of Chiang Rai for 14 of the 27 Facebook posts he was accused of.
Political activist Mongkhon Therakot shows three pro-democracy fingers before going to court.credit: AP
Mongkhon was declared guilty by the Northern District Court of Appeal in Chiang Rai on Thursday, not only in the 14 cases, but also in 11 of the 13 cases in which the lower court acquitted him, the group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said.
The Court of Appeal sentenced him to an additional 22 years in prison, bringing his total sentence to 50 years. Technically, he was sentenced to 75 years in prison, but the sentence was reduced by a third in recognition of his cooperation in the legal proceedings.
The law on insulting property, a crime known as “lese majeste,” carries a prison sentence of three to 15 years for each charge. It is often referred to as Section 112 after its definition in the Thai Criminal Code.
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Critics say the law is often used as a tool to suppress political opposition. Student-led pro-democracy protests that began in 2020 have publicly criticized the monarchy, previously a taboo subject, leading to strict prosecutions under the law, which was previously rarely enforced.
Since those protests, more than 260 people have been charged with these crimes, according to the lawyers' group.
The Court of Appeal overturned the acquittals of the lower court on the basis that the law applied in cases where it was not the current king or his immediate family that was being referred to, which had been the norm for many years. However, as lese majeste prosecutions have become increasingly common over the past decade, the court case set a precedent by finding that previous rulers were also covered by the law.
