The military court in northern Thailand sentenced a hotel employee with two children to 28 years behind bars for posting messages alleged as defamation to the Thai monarchy on facebook.
According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), the military court of the northern province of Chiang Mai on Friday afternoon, 7 August 2015, sentenced Sasiwimol (surname withheld due to privacy concerns), a 29-year-old employee of a hotel in the province, to 56 years in jail for allegedly posting seven lese majeste messages under the Facebook identity ‘Rungnapha Kampichai’.
The military court gave 8 years jail term to each of the seven lese majeste counts of the suspect. However, since the defendant pleaded guilty as charged, the court halved the jail term to 28 years.
At the deposition hearing in June 2015, the defendant denied all allegations. However, during the plaintiff’s examination hearing today, 7 August 2015, she retracted her pretrial statements and pleaded guilty.
Prior to the ruling, Sasiwimol submitted a letter to the court, requesting the judges to reduce the jail sentence because she has never committed any crime and is a mother of two daughters aged seven and five. The military court judges dismissed the request and reasoned that the jail sentence is already light since case is severe because it is related to the revered Thai monarchy and gravely affected public sentiment of Thai people.
In September 2014, a Facebook group in Chiang Mai known simply as ‘Facebook Chiang Mai’ filed a lese majeste complaint against a Facebook user under the name ‘Rungnapha Kampichai’ at a local police station.
Shortly after, an individual whose real identity is Rungnapha Kampichai contacted the group, saying that the Facebook account under her name does not belong to her.
In the same month, police officers searched Sasiwimol’s house in Chiang Mai and confiscated her mobile phone and computer.
On 13 February 2015, police summoned the suspect and accused her of posting six messages allegedly defaming the Thai monarchy on Facebook. Sasiwimol was then brought to the military court and Chiang Mai Women's Correctional Institute for detention. She has remained in custody since.
The suspect’s family four times offered 400,000 baht (11,869 USD) as bail to the military court. However, the court denied bail, citing the severity of the case.
During the deposition hearing in June 2015, Sasiwimol said that she has never participated in any political demonstration and that she is not interested in politics.