A man has been arrested and charged with Article 112 or lese majeste for sending an email containing a link to content deemed defaming the monarchy to now-defunct Stop Lese Majeste blog. This is the third case involving the blog, according to iLaw.
Tanet (last name withheld due to privacy concern) was accused of sending an email to Emilio Esteban, whom the police identified as an Englishman residing in Spain. Esteban runs the Stop Les Majeste blog.
The police states on the custody petition that the police has seeked the court’s order to hack into Esteban’s email in 2010 and found an email from the suspect.
In the email, the suspect allegedly gave Esteban a link to an article deemed lese majeste with a message “Can you post this web on your site for Thais to read? They need to read it. Thanks load.”
However, the police had not follow cases against Tanet until 2 July 2014 when 10 military officers and plainclothes police raided his house and arrested him. During the pre-charge detention at a military camp, Tanet admitted of sending the email. On the sixth day of the detention, a court’s arrest warrant was issued. On the seventh day, the last day that the Martial Law allows for pre-charge detention, the military transferred Tanet into the custody of the police’s Technology Crime Suppression Division.
The police charged him under Article 112 (for defaming the King), 116 (for instigating unrest) of the Criminal Code and Article 14 (3) of the Computer Crime Law (for sending content deemed threat to national security on the computer system).
At police, Tanet, 45, pleaded guilty to all charges. He is now detained at the Bangkok Remand Prison. Tanet is infected with HIV and was treated at a hospital in central Petchaboon province.
Earlier Nat S. and Suwicha T. were found guilty for lese majeste and under the Computer Crime Act on charges involving Estaban in 2009.
Suwicha was sentenced to 20 year imprisonment for allegedly joining Estaban in defaming the monarchy. The sentence was halved because he pleaded guilty. He served the jail term for about a year before receiving the royal pardon in 2010.
Nat was sentenced to nine years in jail for sending email containing content deemed lese majeste to Estaban. The police found Nat’s email after hacking into Estaban’s email account. However, the sentence was reduced by half since the Nat pleaded guilty. Nat was granted an early release after serving jail term for about three years in 2008.
Stop Lese Majeste blog on blogspot is no longer exist. Apart from advocating for the abolition of the law, the blog shared news of lese majeste prisoners and content defaming the Thai monarchy.