Two Thais await sentence for ‘insulting’ royals in play

Two young Thais accused of insulting the monarchy in a university play braced for sentencing Monday as the ruling junta intensifies its crackdown on perceived royal slurs under the kingdom’s controversial lese majeste law. Student Patiwat Saraiyaem, 23, and activist Porntip Mankong, 26, pleaded guilty to defamation after their arrest last August, nearly a year after “The Wolf Bride”, a satire set in a fictional kingdom, was performed at Bangkok’s Thammasat University. They were each charged with one count of lese majeste linked to the play, which marked the 40th anniversary of a pro-democracy student protest at the university that was brutally crushed by the military regime in October 1973. Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 87, is revered by many in the country as a demi-god and shielded by one of the world’s most draconian royal defamation laws.

Asia-Pacific