Thai Students Jailed For Insulting Monarchy

A Thai court has sentenced a man and a woman to two years and six months in jail each for "damaging the monarchy".

Patiwat Saraiyaem, 23, and Pornthip Munkong, 26, had pleaded guilty to breaking strict lese majeste laws which protect the royals from any insults.

The charges related to a play they performed at a university in 2013.

'Not afraid'
 
The BBC's Jonathan Head, who is at the court in Bangkok, says the two were handcuffed together on arrival, one wearing leg shackles.

The mother of Pornthip Munkong, an activist who directed the play, was in tears as the sentence was read out.

Pornthip Munkong told reporters ahead of the decision that she was not afraid of going to prison.

The play, called Wolf Bride, was set in a fantasy kingdom and featured a fictional king and his advisor.

It marked the 40th anniversary of a student pro-democracy protest that was crushed by a military regime.

However, the full details have not been widely reported because under the laws media coverage which repeat details of the offense is considered the same as the original statement.

It was performed at Bangkok's Thammasat University in October 2013 while Patiwat Saraiyaem was a student and Pornthip Munkong had recently graduated. The pair were not arrested until the following August and have been held in custody ever since.

 

 Thailand's lese majeste laws

• Article 112 of criminal code says anyone who "defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir-apparent or the regent" will be punished with up to 15 years in prison

• Law remained largely unchanged since 1908

• Use widened in recent years, snaring academics, journalists, policemen, activists and even a 61-year-old grandfather

 Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 87, is given an almost god-like status by many Thais. He has been on the throne for six decades, making him the world's longest serving monarch.