BANGKOK – A Thai court on Tuesday sentenced a 65-year-old woman to more than 43 years in prison for sharing online posts criticizing the royal family, said her lawyer, the country’s toughest sentence for insulting the monarchy.
His sentence was handed down at a time of unprecedented youth-led demonstrations in which protest leaders openly criticized the monarchy, risking prosecution under Thailand’s strict law known as lese majeste, which carries a sentence of 15 years for each violation.
Anchan Preelert pleaded guilty to 29 separate violations of sharing and posting clips on YouTube and Facebook between 2014 and 2015, his lawyer, Pawinee Chumsri, told Reuters.
Anchan was initially sentenced to 87 years, but as she acknowledged her violations, the court cut that amount in half, the lawyer said.
“This is the longest prison sentence in a case of lese majeste,” said Pawinee, who is from the group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.
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Anchan, who could not be reached for comment, could appeal the sentence in two higher courts, Pawinee said.
Amnesty International expressed dismay at what two Thai human rights groups also said was the longest sentence in Thailand for insulting the monarchy.
Security officials broke into Anchan’s home in January 2015, months after a civilian government was overthrown by a military coup.
Her case, which was initially taken to a military court, was transferred to a civil court after a 2019 general election, which saw former board leader Prayuth Chan-ocha remain prime minister.
At least 169 people were charged with lese majeste after the 2014 coup, according to the lawyers’ rights group, with some cases taking years to process.
Authorities briefly stopped using the lese majeste law in 2018, but the police began invoking it again last year after protest leaders, who drew tens of thousands of people, began to openly criticize the monarchy.
Since November, more than 40 young activists have been accused by the law. None of these cases were brought to trial.
On Monday, another man arrested in 2014 was sentenced to more than four years in prison after posting articles and poems online that the court said contained falsehoods about the monarchy.