16 December 2015•Update: 16 December 2015
By CS Thana
BANGKOK
A Thai single mother has been sentenced to seven years on charges of sedition and insulting the monarchy, her lawyers confirmed Wednesday, amid rights groups’ criticism of recent lese-majeste cases.
Military courts handed a 14-year sentence to the defendant, identified only as 49-year-old Chayapha, but commuted it to seven years due to a guilty plea.
Chayapha was originally charged with sedition for posting comments on Facebook about a possible counter coup.
"Once authorities opened an investigation, they found lese-majeste content which brought about further charges," Thanathorn Thananon, a lawyer for Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, told Anadolu Agency.
Thananon said that the lawyers were not present for the ruling because the military did not inform them ahead of time that there would be a decision.
Chayapha is divorced from her husband and is the mother of a 14-year-old.
The sentencing comes at a time when the detainment of other suspects facing sedition and lese-majeste charges has drawn international attention and an outcry from activists and rights groups.
On Tuesday, a criminal court rejected a petition calling for the release of a 25-year-old student whose peers say he was taken under custody while awating an operation at a hospital.
He is accused of sharing an infographic detailing alleged corruption at a $20 million military-run theme park, which features gigantic bronze-cast statues of Thai kings and has become a focal point for critics of Thailand's junta.
Thanet Anantawong is reportedly connected to another lese-majeste suspect, who was feared missing after being detained last week but appeared in court Monday morning.
Thanakorn Siriphaibun, a 27-year-old factory worker, also faces sedition charges for sharing a diagram about alleged Rajbhakdi Park-related graft.
The Prachatai news website reported that he is also accused of lese-majeste for clicking ‘like’ on a doctored image of the king and posting a comment deemed insulting to the monarch’s dog.
Human Rights Watch has released several statements since last week, cautioning against the alleged rights violations in the recent cases.
In a statement Tuesday, the group’s Asia director, Brad Adams said that “it hasn’t been hard to get thrown in jail for criticizing the junta” following the May 2014 coup.
“Now, all you have to do is press ‘Like’ on your Facebook page.”
Judges have been implementing the lese-majeste law more and more widely amid increased political tensions in Thailand. Many critics consider the law to be anachronistic and mostly used by authorities to stifle political enemies.
Thailand has some of the harshest lese-majeste laws in the world, designed to protect the country's highly revered monarch and his family, which the ruling junta views as above politics.
Release on bail is systemically denied for those charged and all lese-majeste trials since the coup have been held on camera in front of military courts, where there is no right to appeal.
