Thái Lan áp đặt bản án dài nhất từ trước đến nay vì chỉ trích hoàng gia

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Over two months in 2021, an online clothing vendor shared 27 posts on Facebook that included clips from John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight,” a Fox animated series, and a BBC documentary. The content was deemed (coi) offensive to the monarchy (chế độ quân chủ), and this week his sentence was extended, to 50 years in prison.

It is the harshest penalty to date imposed (áp dụng) under a law that makes criticizing royalty a crime, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, a group of lawyers providing assistance to people detained (bị giam giữ) after the country’s 2014 military coup (đảo chính quân sự).

Thailand has one of the world’s strictest lèse-majesté laws (luật khi quân); it forbids defaming (phỉ báng), insulting or threatening the king and other members of the royal family. Known as Article 112, the charge carries a minimum sentence of three years and a maximum sentence of 15 years. It is the only law in Thailand that imposes a minimum jail term.

Even though a civilian government took office in September after almost a decade of military rule, there has been no letup in the number of prosecutions (truy tố) against people who have criticized the monarchy. Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has said he would not amend (sửa đổi) or abolish (bãi bỏ) the law, which observers (người quan sát) say will only exacerbate the gulf in a nation that remains deeply polarized (phân cực).

source: nytimes,