American Faces Prison For Insulting Thai King via Internet

barman · May 29, 2011

(hat tip to Radley Balko at http://theagitator.com)

http://www.theagitator.com/2011/05/29/welcome-to-global-jurisdiction/

Welcome to Global Jurisdiction

Sunday, May 29th, 2011

A U.S. citizen has been arrested in Thailand for insulting the Thai king on the Internet. Each alleged defamations carrries a sentence of 3-15 years in prison.

This is obviously terrible, and I hope the guy is released. But the premise here is no different than when the U.S. government arrests the executives of online gambling sites at U.S. airports and charges them under U.S. law, despite the fact that online gambling is perfectly legal in the countries where they’re citizens and where their companies are incorporated.

We set a pretty nasty precedent here. I don’t see how the U.S. government has much moral standing to demand this guy’s release.

sharky99 · May 29, 2011

They take defamation or negative comments towards the king very serious, I think he's in trouble if proven beyond a resonable doubt

wolfie_cr · May 29, 2011

well, in this case the American was of Thai origin............I sympathize with the guy but its not the typical "I didnt know it was not allowed" kind of thing

kaiz · May 29, 2011

A few facts: He was born in Thailand and lived in america for 30 years, has a Thai name- so Thai american is more appropriate. Also what he did was translate some articles and posted them on his blog as well as a link to a book that is critical of the monarchy. It is not like he was running around shouting death to the king or anything like that.
The king himself has said he is not above criticism, and has pardoned many people convicted of this crime. Here it is used as a political tool to silence the opposition or to harm people you disagree with.

TheFunkMonkey · May 30, 2011

kaiz said:
A few facts: He was born in Thailand and lived in america for 30 years, has a Thai name- so Thai american is more appropriate. Also what he did was translate some articles and posted them on his blog as well as a link to a book that is critical of the monarchy. It is not like he was running around shouting death to the king or anything like that.
The king himself has said he is not above criticism, and has pardoned many people convicted of this crime. Here it is used as a political tool to silence the opposition or to harm people you disagree with.

Hey everybody, here are some fun facts. The population in Thailand is 63 million people.

VIEJODINOSAUR · May 30, 2011

sharky99 said:
They take defamation or negative comments towards the king very serious, I think he's in trouble if proven beyond a resonable doubt

You can say that again...The King is worshiped here....

ProPokerPlayer · May 30, 2011

VIEJO DINOSAUR said:
You can say that again...The King is worshiped here....

Yea same here where we live..... In fact in the last election 1 state issued an order that anyone putting out rumors or untruths about 1 candidate in particular would be jailed..So its pretty much the same everywhere you go.