Man jailed for 30 years for insulting Thai monarchy on Facebook

On Friday Bangkok’s Military Court found Pongsak Sriboonpeng, 48, guilty of posting messages and pictures defaming the monarchy in six posts on the social networking website.

Thailand’s military courts have have issued two long jail sentences to two people who insulted the country’s monarchy on Facebook.

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.

Earlier this week, a man in Chang Rai province received a five year sentence, halved from 10 years because his lawyer claimed the man was mentally ill, after he ripped a photograph of the king.

“It’s broken the record”, she said about the severe jail term, adding that because Pongsak was arrested while Thailand was still under martial law there was no right to appeal the sentence passed by the military court.

Since the ruling Thai junta overthrew the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra last year, the number of cases of people detained for lese-majeste, either awaiting trial or already sentenced has risen exponentially.

He was told he would been sentenced to 60 years but it was halved because he pleaded guilty.

Critics have said the law is often used by the political elite to get even with those opposed to the coup.

In April a 58 year old businessman was jailed for 25 years for posting Facebook messages deemed to be defamatory to the monarchy.

Poonsuk Poonsukcharoen, a solicitor for support panel Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, said the appellant let to making a Facebook aliungis to give three reviews were being regarded humiliating into the dominion in order to being portion of an anti-establishment sector.