Two Thais jailed for ‘insulting’ royals in play

Two young Thais have been sentenced to two years and six months behind bars for ‘damaging the monarchy’, after they pleaded guilty to breaking Thailand’s strict lese majeste laws, which protect the royal family from insults. 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. It comes as the ruling junta intensifies its crackdown on perceived royal slurs under the kingdom’s controversial lese majeste law. 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