A court in Thailand sentenced a woman to 43 and a half years in prison for insulting the king and the monarchy. This is reported by The Independent with reference to local sources.
The criminal is over 60 years old, she is a civil servant. The woman was found guilty of nearly three dozen violations of this article: she published audio messages criticizing the Thai regime on social networks. Her original sentence was twice as long at 87 years, but it was cut in half after she pleaded guilty. This is the largest such sentence in recent years: the previous “record” belonged to the seller, who was imprisoned for 35 years.
“The verdict of the court is shocking and shows how brutally the authorities are ready to punish criticism of the monarchy,” Sunay Phasuk, a spokesman for the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, told reporters.
Under the article on insulting the royal power in Thailand, a period of 3 to 15 years is prescribed for each case. Until recently, it was used only as a weapon for targeted political persecution, and not in order to really persecute dissidents. However, after the protests of supporters of reforms began in the country, it began to be applied in accordance with the letter of the law.
