Turkey- Rights group claims Thai junta abuses Lese Majeste Law

(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) >A Paris-based Rights group has denounced the "alarming levels" of abuse reached in the implementation of Thailand's lese-majeste law since generals seized power in a May 2014 coup and overthrew the elected government.

“The abuse of Thailand’s draconian article 112 of the criminal code has reached alarming levels following the country’s latest military coup d’etat” the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) said in a 32-page report published Friday and titled Lese-majeste imprisonment under Thailand’s military junta.

Article 112 of Thailand's criminal code punishes “whoever defames insults or threatens the King Queen the Heir-apparent or the Regent” with imprisonment of three to fifteen years.

The country's lese-majeste law is one of the harshest in the world and has a unique specificity that anyone can file a lese-majeste complaint against anyone the police being forced by law to investigate all grievances.

According to FIDH researchers there has been a nine-fold increase in the number of detained people for lese-majeste violations since the coup overthrew the government of Yingluck Shinawatra.

It said that 66 people have been arrested for lese-majeste and 36 of them sentenced to jail.

The report highlighted the story of Sasiphimon Patomwongfangam a mother of two primary-school age daughters who was sentenced last June to 56 years in jail for Facebook postings deemed critical of 88-year-old ailing King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The sentence was reduced to 28 years because Patomwongfangam pleaded guilty.

In another case a 27 year-old factory worker Thanakorn Siriphaiboon was arrested last December for having mocked the King’s dog on Facebook.

He is still detained and all his bail requests have been rejected.

“In many cases alleged lese-majeste defendants have been denied basic guarantees relating to a fair trial” said the report.

Since the coup almost all of those accused of lese-majeste crimes are brought to military courts where most judges are military officers appointed by the army chief with no legal training.

Their rate of conviction is close to 100 percent.

The report noted that the accused are often initially arrested without arrest warrants and deprived of lawyers at the beginning of their detention. Bail requests are almost systematically denied by military courts and lese-majeste trials are held in camera.

According to FIDH 75 percent of lese-majeste arrests detentions and imprisonments are related to the right of freedom of opinion and expression.

“The deprivation of liberty that stems from these lese-majeste cases prosecutions is a clear violation of Thailand’s legal obligations with regard to the right of freedom of opinion and expression” said the report underscoring that Thailand is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966.

It added that the current Thai military government -- as well as past civilian governments -- have all resisted a reform of the law justifying the harsh sentences by saying that the royal family had “no other mechanisms of protection”.

The FIDH recommends that the Thai military government release “all prisoners imprisoned under the article for the mere exercise of their right to freedom of opinion and expression” that the power to file complaints be reserved to the Royal household bureau and that all cases of civilians facing lese-majeste charges before military courts be transferred to civilian courts.

By Max Constant