65-Year-Old Woman Gets Harshest Sentence For Criticizing Monarchy Online

A 65-year-old woman was sentenced to more than 43 years in jail for the criticism she has hurled at the royal family. The term is the harshest ever given to any individual in the country for insulting the monarchy.

The woman was identified as Anchan Preelert whose sentence comes at a time of youth-led demonstrations that continue to criticize the monarchy. They risk prosecution under the Thailand law known as lese majese. Each sentence carries a penalty of 15 for each violation, Reuters reported.

Anchan pleaded guilty to 29 different violations after sharing posts and clips on online platforms such as Facebook and YouTube from 2014 to 2015 according to her lawyer, Pawinee Chumsri.

The sentence was a reduction from the original 87 years meted to her. It was halved after Preelert acknowledged her violations.

“This is the highest prison sentence ever in a lese majeste case,” said Pawinee, who is from the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights group.

Pawinee adds that Anchan can still appeal the sentence at two higher courts. Amnesty International was dismayed at the comments by two Thai rights groups for saying it was the longest ever sentence in Thailand.

It was in January 2015 when security officials raided the home of Anchan. This was months after the civilian government was overthrown by a military coup. Her case would eventually be transferred to a civilian court after the 2019 general election which saw former junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha stay on as prime minister.

Anchan was one of at least 169 people charged with lese majeste after the 2014 coup. Some cases take years to process according to the lawyer’s rights groups.

Lese majeste was briefly stopped in 2018 but police started to invoke it late last year after leaders of the protests started to openly criticize the monarchy.

So far, more than 40 youth activists have been charged but none have been put on trial.

Anchan’s sentence comes not long after a man arrested in 2014 was sentenced to more than four years in jail after publishing articles and poems online that reportedly contained falsehoods about the monarchy per the court.