BANGKOK – A Thai court on Tuesday sentenced a 65-year-old woman to more than 43 years in prison for sharing online posts criticizing the royal family. According to her lawyer, the country’s most severe sentence ever is for insulting the monarchy.
Her sentence comes at a time of unprecedented demonstrations led by the youth, in which protest leaders openly criticized the monarchy and risked persecution under the strict law of Thailand, known as les majeste, which carries a 15-year sentence for each carry offense.
Anchan Preelert pleaded guilty to 29 separate offenses of sharing and posting clips on YouTube and Facebook between 2014 and 2015, her lawyer, Pawinee Chumsri, told Reuters.
Anchan was initially sentenced to 87 years, but because she admitted her offenses, the court halved it, the lawyer said.
“This is the highest prison sentence ever in a case of majesty,” said Pawinee, who is from the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights group.
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Anchan, who could not be reached for comment, could appeal the sentence to two higher courts, Pawinee said.
Amnesty International has expressed outrage over what two Thai rights groups also said was the longest sentence ever in Thailand for insulting the monarchy.
Security officials raided Anchan’s home in January 2015, months after a civilian government was overthrown in a military coup.
Her case, which was initially brought before a military court, was transferred to a civilian court after a general election in 2019, leaving former junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha as prime minister.
According to the lawyer’s rights group, at least 169 people were charged in the aftermath of the 2014 coup because of the greatest majesty. Some cases took years to process.
Authorities briefly stopped using the Majesty Act in 2018, but police resumed calls late last year after leaders of the protests, which drew tens of thousands of people, openly criticized the monarchy.
Since November, more than 40 youth activists have been charged under the law. None of the cases were executed.
On Monday, another man arrested in 2014 was sentenced to more than four years in prison after publishing articles and poems online that, according to the court, contained falsehoods about the monarchy.