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Thai Man Faces 37 Years In Prison For "Insulting" the King's Dog
Submitted by Carey Wedler via TheAntiMedia.org,
In America, we often joke that what we post on the internet might land us in prison, but for the time being - though perhaps not for long - we are generally safe to say what we like about the government. We worry mostly only about the “slap on the wrist” of probably being placed on a watch list.
A man in Thailand, however, faces 37 years in prison for criticizing the king’s dog on the internet, as well as allegedly insulting the monarchy.
Thanakorn Siripaiboon, a factory worker, faced trial this week in a military court for making a “sarcastic” comment about the king’s dog online. Though officials declined to cite any specific statements, CBS News reports the man shared an “inappropriate” picture of the dog and liked a photo disparaging to the king.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 88, found Tongdaeng, a mutt, in an alley in 1998, taking her under his wing. He even wrote a popular book about her in 2002, which was turned into a recently released animated film that reached No. 2 at the box office in Thailand last week. Like the king, the dog is beloved by much of the population, and ironically, if not predictably, the king’s book praises Tongdaeng for her submissive qualities of “respect,” “manners,” “obedience,” and “loyalty.”
Mr. Thanakorn’s charges are not limited to “insulting” the dog. He is also charged with sedition for sharing an infographic online that alluded to corruption in the military’s construction of a monument intended to celebrate past monarchs. Another man was arrested on Sunday for sharing the same image.
The offenses fall under the country’s lese majeste — or “injured monarchy” — rules, which are some of the most stringent in the world. The laws dictate that it is illegal to question or criticize the monarchy or the royal family.
As BBC has explained: “Article 112 of Thailand’s 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.” Each individual charge carries a separate 15 year sentence, a penalty that has been in place since 1908, when the country’s first criminal code was established.
Though Thailand has a monarchy, the nation also operates a democracy. In spite of the purported democratic system, the military has staged coups 11 times since 1932. Regardless, various constitutions have stipulated that “The King shall be enthroned in a position of revered worship and shall not be violated. No person shall expose the King to any sort of accusation or action.” Anyone can file lese majeste charges against anyone, but they must be formally investigated by police. Despite public participation in the process, such arrests are not highly publicized so as at avoid encouraging others to violate the strict laws.
Following the military’s latest coup in May of last year, the junta has increasingly cracked down on individuals suspected of violating the laws, though there is no concrete definition of what ‘insulting the monarchy’ actually means.
According to Mr. Yingcheet, project manager for iLaw, a local rights group that monitors lese majeste, the number of prosecutions under Article 112 has risen sharply since last year.
“Just before the coup, there were just five people in prison under lèse-majesté and only two ongoing prosecutions,” Yingcheet said. “The total number of people who have been charged under lèse-majesté is now at 51, since the coup,” says Yingcheet. “Four were released, three have been bailed out, and one case was suspended.” The others still have open cases or are already serving their terms.
On Tuesday, a day after Mr. Thanakorn was arrested, a mother pled guilty to insulting the monarchy in order to reduce her sentence to seven years. In September 2014, a social activist and editor of a magazine received a ten year sentence for writing two articles deemed offensive to the monarchy.
Following that ruling, Amnesty International said, “Authorities in Thailand have in recent years increasingly used legislation, including the lese majeste law, to silence peaceful dissent and jail prisoners of conscience.” In August of this year, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights criticized “the shockingly disproportionate prison terms.”
Even the United States ambassador to Thailand has been investigated — for giving a speech on “lengthy and unprecedented prison sentences.” An academic was charged under lese majeste for criticizing a king who ruled over 400 years ago.
Earlier this year, a tour operator pled guilty to 6 separate counts of lese majeste violations, and the military court reduced the sentence to 30 years because the “suspect” pleaded out. On the same day, a hotel employee received 28 years after pleading guilty to seven counts of lese-majeste, which cut the sentence in half, from 56 years.
Vice News reported that these two sentences came “just a few days after a man with a long history of mental illness was sentenced to five years in prison for allegedly slashing a portrait of the king and queen, and only a few months after a businessman in the northern city of Chiang Rai was sentenced to 25 years for posting allegedly defamatory Facebook messages about the monarchy.”
Further, the New York Times noted that since its coup, the military has “relentlessly cracked down on challenges to its power, detaining journalists, academics, politicians and students for ‘attitude adjustment’ sessions at military camps. Dissidents are made to sign pledges that allow for financial penalties if they take part in ‘political activity.’”
Though the government itself has shown a strong tendency toward censorship, fear of criticizing the monarchy has led organizations to censor themselves. News of Mr. Thanakorn’s trial, which the New York Times covered, was excluded from the Thailand edition of the paper. Instead, the front page left a space blank — and it wasn’t the first time. Earlier this month, a story on the Thai economy was censored from the Thai New York Times, as was a story the same week about the royal family’s wealth. In all three cases, a standard message appeared:
“The article in this space was removed by our printer in Thailand. The International New York Times and its editorial staff had no role in its removal.”
Last year, a popular chain of Thai theaters refused to show the Hunger Games: Mockingjay at the same time students were arrested for flashing the film and book’s popular salute during the a speech by the junta’s top general.
Though the king is wildly popular in Thailand and the government cracks down harshly on dissent, it has clearly failed to stop people from resisting. Even those familiar with the stringent policy, however, were surprised at Mr. Thanakorn’s charges for disrespecting the royal dog.
“I never imagined they would use the law for the royal dog,” Anon Numpa, Mr. Thanakorn’s lawyer, said. “It’s nonsense.”
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Did he threaten to Wok the dog? lol
i see what you did there, ha !
If you've ever been to Thailand...the King is considered something like a real "god" over there. You don't fuck with the King or his dog!
Silly small people and their goofy worship. How are they better than the chubby tyrant in North Korea when they both believe in divine rule?
But the regular sheep will never understand what's really going on
Question : why would someone criticize a dog if not to criticize the monarchy ?
What could be insulting to a dog? That it looked like a cat...or the King? Inquiring minds want to know!!
It was his dyslexia. You know the dog/god thing.
If everyone in Thailand insulted the king and his dog, would everyone go to prison?
Yum, BBQ'd Royal Babies! FUCK YOU!
Thais say their king invented chemtrails in his youth to make rain fall for good rice harvest! Not a joke.
There is a video of his son of a birthday of a dog with naked titties of the princess:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2638352/How-future-queen-Thailan...
Dog probably has exceptionally stinky gas. Bad dog!
On the plus side - he won't have wait 37years before the Kingdom falls apart and empties the cells due to lack of funds and working government
I won't have a bad word said about Chubby Cheeks.
Well, Most Americans believe in the christian god, for which there is no evidence of existance. The King definitely DOES exist...so which country is more goofy?
And yet in thailand, they eat dog.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/375249
And traffic them to the vietnamese.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/02/world/asia/thailand-dogs/index.html
The author doesn't know shit about Thailand.
OF COURSE there were fewer lese majeste prosecutions under Yingluck, since her brother was accused of lese majeste.
As for coups, the big one is coming when the king dies - because Thaksin tried to buy favor from the heir apparent. There are only two options Thaksin is killed (which is difficult since is hiding from Thai authorities, and his death would make him a martyr, or Prince Vajiralongkorn dies, which cannot happen while the King is alive. Of course if the King wanted to do what's best for his country... he would make his daughter heir apparent and eliminate the need for a coup and pain it will cause the country.
Agree with everything you said. All we know right now, is that it's very likely that some dark times are coming for Thailand..very sad, as it's a great culture. Many Thais seem to be feeling (not expressed out loud), that after the King is gone, there is no more Thailand. At least not in its current form. Thai myths hint that there will be only 9 Ramas.
Insulting the Thai king is analgous to going to Alabama and wiping your ass with an American flag.
You may get away with it, but some people will take it very personally, particularly if they have some other reason to dislike you.
Insulting the Thai king is analgous to going to Alabama and wiping your ass with an American flag.
You may get away with it, but some people will take it very personally, particularly if they have some other reason to dislike you and fuck you up.
No but he did say the dog was Thaied up
Hell, if Loretta Lynchmob gets her way, insulting muslim dogs will get your tongue cut out.
I'll see him and raise him: "Hey, King of Thailand, you're a weak, dumb, useless worm of a 'man'. Your only use is as statist window-dressing for Globalist Banksters, you goy putz! Your father smelled of elderberry, and your mother was a hamster (in the red light district.)"
LOL
Brutal.
Yeah, having been to Thailand, they take that royalty stuff pretty serious.
Which you should do too, while a guest of the Kingdom.
I respect that THEY take it serious.
I sometimes wonder if we are actually still living in the dark ages, civilization seems to be regressing!
I actually thought that this was far fetched, but after reading this I am now not so sure......
http://beforeitsnews.com/conspiracy-theories/2015/12/is-russian-president-vladimir-putin-a-reptilian-kgb-time-traveler-video-2472970.html
Oh and by the way......your dog is ugly!!
And next door in Vietnam, they wok dogs everyday.
Might want to update your google maps or something. Vietnam does not border Thailand. Of course complete lack of knowledge of a topic certainly never stopped a millennial from talking...please carry on.
He should have accidentally fallen on it and penetrated it instead.
Ya know the end of the royals is coming near when they do this shit.
so, royally screwed the pooch then?
poor dog
Exactly...Where are the Animal rights activists when you need them to defend a dog's feeling?
Incidentally, how do they prove in court the dog felt insulted again? Is that tail between the legs...or just the King's....
Dog gone it!!
And so soon after the passing of Foo Foo:
http://www.advocate.com/pets/2015/02/09/worlds-richest-poodle-dead
Dogs have feelings too.
In Thailand, the king is revered as a God - that's a neat trick that has worked for centuries.
And the military uses lese majeste laws to crack down on dissent.
When something so ridiculous happens, you can be sure someone is being made an example of.
If the king has a smidgen of kindness, he would commute all those people thrown into dungeons for lese majeste laws. But he may be controlled by the military now.
When will the world grow the fuck up and get over this king bullshit! What sane human in 2015 can say that it makes sense that a man rules over a country because God said so? Death to all "kings", "queens" and their spawn.
The spirit of 1789 needs to visit Thailand.
Many countries still have kings and queens.
Face it. Most Humans love having a master over them.
YES.. ppl here talk like they're so much above all that "kingdom" stuff. Yet they love to be sodomized by: Gods, bosses, presidents, their drill sargent, the local cops, etc. People want to be slaves.
"shall not take the Lord's name in vain." This is referring to divine right of kings, no GD.
Rumor has it the Thai king might be dead already (he's 88 years old, you know, and looked very senile and befuddled last time I saw him on TV). They might be waiting to announce his death due to vicious infighting between the children over who should be the next king (or queen). I'm pretty sure the recent crackdown has more to do with the recent uprisings and that the current king's days are very much numbered. When military rule was established last year in Thailand, they kicked out the Prime Minister and Parliament. They lose the population's unifying support of the King and all Hell breaks loose. I'm not justifying it so much as explaining it...
He's not dead. He could die any day, but it has not happened yet. It will be obvious when it happens. Thais simply cannot keep anything quiet for long, that would be a cultural impossibility.
38 years for you!
Maybe he meant his wife
Here we just insult the President's Wookie.
That's an insult to Wookie's, all over the universe.
You mean Joe Biden?
Definitely Michelle
Joe who?
Poor guy. He's fit to be Thai'ed.
"Though the king is wildly popular"
You would be keen on the king if the opposite got you to spend the rest of your life in prison!
I think this king would be far more popular with his head on a plate and his body buried exposing only his azz, to serve the Thai people as a royal bike rack. Try it out, people, you will like freedom. It's tasty!
Fear doesn't create love, and the Thais LOVE their current king (even if he is far more of a political string puller than the press is allowed to write about).
For a moment there I thought this was a Michelle Obama article.
Let me be one of the first to insult that dog slit sucking inbread needle dick sloop head greasy haired no legal offspring king of a two bit wanna be country some wher i the backwash of the world-----thank you for listening you royal fagot---I forgot-whats his name again?
his name is fuk dat bich......and by bich i mean bitch.
A real god can fly, walk through walls, cure blindness, stuff like that. What is a real god doing with a mongrel anyway? I think the point is how utterly insane is the Thai population.
well it is a good thing he didnt slowly hang the dog to enrich its flavor then skin it and eat it as a late night snack. the thai are such a civilized culture you know.....
Obama eats dogs. Maybe we could prepare a special dog stew for him.
If the dog looked like some of those hot Brazilian female pics on this site, ZH'ers would be bringing out the pitchforks. It's all relative.
Thai's, you stupid fugs... this is a no-brainer. It's time to kill the king. What does he have to do, slap his dik in your mother's face?
Kill that fker!
PS. People of planet Earth. ANY leaders, taking freedoms of other humans like this, needs to be killed. Now. Enough is a fking nuff. Stop being stupid.
That's rich, coming from a subservient subject of King Obozo I. (Do as I say, not as I do???)
Do you know why American Exceptionalism is derided in the rest of the world?
Because Americans (and NOT just their Dear Leaders) have this exceptionally obnoxious habit of trying to impose their ways on everyone else.
The message is: A Royal Dog is better than the average person, so how much better must the King be.
Cue the "sarcastic comments" and "inappropriate pictures" of the Murican royal horse.
re 37yrs for Insulting King's Dog
Note To Self: No more Michelle wisecracks.
Poor King not thinking of the Streisand effect his dog will be famous lol
As fucked up as America is becoming, at least none of us are being thrown in jail for criticizing the government. Yet.
The world is a very messed up place.
when you want to know who is in charge, you just look at who you are not allowed to insult or criticize.
it's obviously the dog is in charge. clever fucking dog. he's probably jewish zionist.
When will humans ever learn that anti-freedom is at the root of all evil? I'm not talking about freedoms where you get punched in the face everytime you do it or someone will want to kill you for doing it. I'm talking about minding your own freaking business you disgusting busy body know-it-all do gooder pieces of dirt! Anytime you restrict freedom there better be adamn good reason and most new laws today don't meet that criteria. Ban-It People Suck Big Donkey Dick!!!
FUCK the Thailand monarchy and all of them. Fucking inbred bastards. They should have died out 200 years ago. Die already.
No interest in International travel in more fucked up places than the U.S..
37 years in the Bangkok Hilton won't be much fun while the king eats lavish helpings of Red Thai curry every day to cure a constipation problem.
Here king bloke from Thailand,
Bring your self and the dog right here you child molesting inbred cunt. Knock on me door anytime cunt, I will teach you a right royal lesson in how to offend inbred twats like you. The dog is fucked off you keep fucking your son, never mind your daughter.
And you lock folk up for less? I would quite happily kick you to death on my doorstep you stupid fucking inbred born to rule cunt, and take the dog, give it a good home, while freeing your country from the fallacy that pieces of fucking shit like you were born to rule. See what I did there inbred cunt?
You were not dickhead, now knock on me door. I, Will, Kick, You, To, Death.
;-)
Avoid winter hols in Phuket from now on my friend..... ;-)
I would be trembling in anticipation and excitement waiting on this cunt knocking on my door Smacker mate.
I really would kick this cunt to death.
Thats just me mind
;-)
If you ever go there and need to flee without using airports, I know how to do that across land borders or across the Mekon River ;-)
No problems ...
The King never smiles is a book published about the King which is banned in Thailand. Even having copy on your computer will get a foreigner/Thai arrested. Big secrets about the King who was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
I had no idea Thailand was such a repressive shithole. I figured they were pretty open, considering that is the place to go if you want to rape children on a dime. Fuck the king and his fucking dug. I can't believe people tolerate this shit.
Well, you have to define repression. I assume you must have not travelled much outside your protected bubble. First of all, "raping children" is very much illegal in Thailand. Drugs are also highly illegal. Best not to do either one unless you want to spend a long time in the monkey house. Now, is THAT repression? Or justice? The answer is that it is cultural. The Thais would consider American culture horribly barbaric, as after kids grow up, they move away, and generally don't ever take care of their aging parents. It's cultural.
But, the King is reverred as a Dog!
Is the prison sentance in dog years?
Way back in the early 70s I heard from other GIs about stepping on their coins. The story went that a guy dropped one, it started rolling away, he stopped it with his foot and got dragged off to the police station for an impromptu beating and a ticket. The king's face is on the baht coin. The sole of the foot is insulting, that's why they hung a sandal over the emblem on our embassy when they kicked us out.
Every house keeps a portrait of the king hung high on the wall so nobody can look down at it.
Your depth of understanding of Thailand is likely about the same as your understanding of Vietnam..close to 0.
Eat me, bitch.
(WTF?)
It was nicer when Yuel Brenner was their king.
cant do that in the US we all know obama's dog is smarter then he is
One can trust a dog- not the banksters and the politicians.
To those of us who have dogs- the answer will be the above.
We have a strange mix of world leaders
today