Thai court sentences woman to 43 years for insulting monarchy
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A court in Thailand said Tuesday a woman who uploaded videos after the 2014 military coup also offended King Maha Vajiralongkorn and the monarchy. File Photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EPA
Jan. 19 (UPI) A court in Thailand has sentenced a woman to 43 years in jail for insulting the king, or violating a draconian law that can punish offenders for remarks made against the monarchy.
A woman identified only by her given name, Anchan, initially was sentenced to 87 years in prison for sharing videos that were considered slanderous to the king. Her sentence was reduced to 43 years and six months after she pleaded guilty, or confessed during the trial, the Bangkok Post reported Tuesday.
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On June 4 Sitanan Satsaksit called her brother, Wanchalearm, as he bought meatballs from a food stall in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. Then she heard a loud bang, screams, and her brother shouting, I can t breathe . Onlookers say armed men bundled Wanchalearm into a black SUV, which sped away.
Wanchalearm was a human-rights activist who had fled Thailand after a military coup there in 2014. Aged 37, he was the ninth exiled Thai dissident to disappear in recent years. The bodies of two were found in the Mekong River on Thailand s border with Laos - disembowelled, bodies stuffed with concrete, their legs broken and hands shackled. Nobody expects to see Wanchal