On 1 November 2016, Gen Chalermchai Suthisad, Commander in Chief of the Royal Thai Army (RTA), said that the army will use its cyber centers to monitor distorted news from within and outside the country, especially news which violate Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse majesté law, Matichon Online reported [1].

He added that people should be cautious before sharing news and online contents, which could harm certain individuals and the nation.

When asked if the army’s effort to monitor lèse majesté online contents will also affect academic works, the RTA commander said “We will have to proceed in accordance to Article 112 on anything which could affect the [Thai] Monarchy. The cyber world contains both facts and fictions, so if people don’t know the facts they should not share the news.”

Last week, the Thai police said that they have investigated 20 cases of lèse majesté since the passing of King Bhumibol Adulyadej on 13 October 2016, according to a spokesperson from the Royal Thai Police.

According to ACM Prajin Junthong, the caretaker Minister for Digital Economy and Society (DE), the authorities also requested Google, Youtube, Line and Facebook for cooperation to monitor lèse majesté contents online.

The authorities will publish a report on the suppression of online lèse majesté contents on 1 November, Prajin added then.

Prachatai

* Posted: 31 Oct 2016 09:14 PM PDT:
http://prachatai.org/english/node/6685?utm

 Man arrested for lèse majesté Facebook post made under girlfriend’s request

In a raid on a tattoo parlor, police arrested a 16-year-old teenager who allegedly posted a lèse majesté message on a fake Facebook account posing as his girlfriend’s stepmother. The fake account and the post had been made at his girlfriend’s request.

On 29 October 2016, the police of Koh Phangan Police Station in the southern Surat Thani Province arrested a 16-year-old vocational student referred to as ‘Jack’. Jack is accused of opening a fake Facebook account under the name of Rossarin Luckdeenan, a 27-year-old woman who is the stepmother of his girlfriend, and for then posting a message deemed defamatory to the Thai Monarchy on it.

The arrest was made after the police raided a tattoo parlour owned by Rossarin’s husband on 27 October after receiving a report that her Facebook account contained a lèse majesté message, reported Matichon Online [2].

The officers arrested Rossarin and her husband Thamphurin, aged 33, (surname withheld for privacy) and took them to the police station for interrogation. The police also searched the parlour and confiscated a gun, a laptop and three mobile phones.

During the interrogation however, Rossarin told the police that the Facebook account with the the lèse majesté message was not hers. She suspected the poser was her teenage stepdaughter referred to as ‘A’.

After the police took A to the police station for interrogation, she confessed to ordering Jack, her boyfriend, to create a fake Facebook account with the name and the image of her stepmother, and to then put up the lèse majesté message on it.

The police accused Jack of breaking Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse majesté law and Article 14 of 2007 Computer Crime Act (a law against the importation of illegal computer content). They will request custody of Jack from the Provincial Court in Koh Samui.

The authorities said that they will interrogate A in detail before further legal proceedings.

Prachatai

* Posted: Mon, 31/10/2016 - 11:36:
http://prachatai.org/english/node/6682?utm

 Man denied bail after posting photos of Crown Prince

The Chiang Rai Military Court has for the third time denied bail to a man accused of lèse majesté for posting images of the Thai Crown Prince.

On 3 November 2016, the Military Court of the northern province of Chiang Rai granted police permission to continue to detain Sarawut (surname withheld due to privacy concerns), a 32-year-old optometrist, the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported.

Sarawut is accused of breaking Article 112 of the Criminal Code, the lèse majesté law, for allegedly posting two images of Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn deemed defamatory to the Thai Monarchy.

To justify the detention request, the police said that the investigation and interrogation process on the case is not complete yet. He will be detained for 12 more days with the possibility that custody permission will be being renewed.
The family of the suspect later submitted a bail request with 100,000 baht cash and a land title deed valued at 400,000 baht as surety. However, the court denied bail citing flight risk and the severity of the charges.

The court dismissed the statement from the suspect’s family that Sarawut has to take care of his sons — the older being 5 years old while the younger is only 3 months old — and that he was cooperative with police during the investigation process.

Along with the lèse majesté law, Sarawut is also accused of offences under Article 14 (3) and (5) of the 2007 Computer Crime Act, a law against the importation of illegal online content.

The investigation into the case began when soldiers from the 37^th Military Circle of Chiang Rai filed a complaint under Article 112 against Sarawut on 21 July 2016.
After the complaint was filed, the police confiscated Sarawut’s electronic devices with a search warrant on 26 August 2016 before sending them to the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD).

The notorious lèse majesté law clearly states, “Whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, Queen, Heir-apparent or Regent shall be punished [with] imprisonment of three to fifteen years.”

Prachatai

* Posted: Posted: 04 Nov 2016 02:46 AM PDT:
http://prachatai.org/english/node/6682?utm